Mitchell: Push for two-states begins now

[Scurrilous]

US special envoy to Middle East meets with opposition leader, Tzipi Livni after struggling to find common ground with new FM Lieberman. Livni: Peace process vital for Israel's existence, national Jewish identity

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3702256,00.html

<snip>

"After struggling to find common ground with new Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and before his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, special US envoy George Mitchell sat down with opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Thursday afternoon.

Mitchell said his goal was to convince the Israeli leadership of the necessity of establishing a Palestinian state.

Speaking to reporters before his meeting with Livni, Mitchell said that America's national interest is to see a viable peace in the Middle East, one that included a Palestinian state alongside Israel as the solution to the conflict.

The former senator said that this would be the focus of his efforts in the coming months.

Mitchell, US President Barack Obama's personal envoy to the region, stressed: "As I have said in the past, the president is deeply and personally committed to achieving peace in the Middle East based on the solution of two states for two peoples."



Ministers renounce two-state solution

<snip>

"As US emissary George Mitchell was making the rounds in Jerusalem Thursday and reaffirming President Barack Obama's commitment to Palestinian statehood, Israeli ministers were distancing themselves from a two-state solution.

"The preferable course of diplomatic action at this time is two economies for two peoples and not two states for two peoples," Interior Minister Eli Yishai said. "The American emissary also knows that forcing the region into virtual diplomatic discourse will only breed the opposite results."

Speaking to Army Radio, Yishai expounded on the "economic peace" propounded by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, saying, "It would be more correct to create trust through economic discourse which is essentially a Palestinian interest."

By "enlisting" to aid the recovery of the Palestinian economy, he said, the international community would also be helping the Palestinian public "relinquish terror."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710704772&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull


Israel demands Palestinians recognise "Jewish state"

<snip>

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a visiting U.S. envoy on Thursday that his government would condition talks over Palestinian statehood on the Palestinians first recognising Israel as a Jewish state.

"Israel expects the Palestinians to first recognise Israel as a Jewish state before talking about two states for two peoples," a senior official in Netanyahu's office quoted the new prime minister as telling George Mitchell, U.S. President Barack Obama's special envoy."

http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE53F4TP20090416

[Captain Hilts]

1. Let's call them 'Bert' and 'Ernie'. That will temper some emotions. nt

[Fozzledick]

9. FREE BERT NOW!! DEATH TO ERNIE!!1!!

Nice try anyways :yoiks:

[shira]

2. If Netanyahu and Lieberman are against 2 states, they'll be voted out early

because most of the Israeli populace is for 2 states.

[bemildred]

3. Netanyahu to Mitchell: No to a 2nd Hamastan

Prime Minister Ehud Netanyahu told George Mitchell, the US envoy to the region, that "Israel must preserve its security interests," a Netanyahu aide reported Thursday.

According to the report, the Prime Minister told Mitchell and "Israel is not interested in ruling the Palestinians but must ensure that the political process will not cause a second Hamastan in Israel." (Roni Sofer)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3702310,00.html

Lieberman: New Approach Needed in Peace Talks

(IsraelNN.com) Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told United State Middle East envoy George Mitchell on Thursday that a new approach is needed between Israel and the Arabs. Lieberman told the former senator that wide-ranging concessions offered to the Arabs in the past resulted in wars.

Mitchell reiterated Washington's solid support for creating an independent Palestinian Authority state. He later told former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni that the US would work relentlessly toward that goal in the coming months.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/163622

[LeftishBrit]

5. Prime Minister Ehud Netanyahu? Interesting typo.

Ehud Barak has got altogether too close to Bibi Netanyahu; but they're still not the same person!

[bemildred]

6. LOL.

That's so Freudian.

[IndianaGreen]

7. Barak has his head so far up in Bibi's ass that they have become one

hence the Ehud Netanyahu designation.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Good luck to Mitchell !

[bemildred]

8. US sees Arab peace plan as part of Palestinian state push

RAMALLAH, West Bank, April 17 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, called on Friday for an Arab peace initiative to be part of a planned U.S. drive to create a Palestinian state.

The 2002 Arab initiative offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.

"The U.S. is committed to the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state where the aspirations of the Palestinian people to control their destiny are realised. We want the Arab peace initiative to be part of the effort to reach this goal," Mitchell said after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Mitchell met on Thursday with Israel's new prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who has yet to commit to restarting U.S.-backed talks with Abbas on core issues such as statehood borders, and the future of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLH297563

[Scurrilous]

10. Palestinians Ask U.S. Envoy to Press Israel on ‘Two-State Solution’

<snip>

"Palestinian leaders asked the American envoy to the Middle East on Friday to press Israel’s new government to accept the notion of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and other Palestinian officials met with the envoy, George J. Mitchell, at the Palestinian Authority’s headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah a day after Mr. Mitchell held talks with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s conservative-leaning prime minister, and other Israeli leaders.

Mr. Netanyahu, who took office last month, has refused to explicitly support Palestinian statehood, and says that the new government is still formulating its policies. He told Mr. Mitchell that it was time for “new approaches and fresh ideas,” and said the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, a condition Palestinian negotiators have long refused to meet.

But Mr. Mitchell said after the meeting in Ramallah that “a two-state solution is the only solution,” and that a comprehensive peace in the Middle East was “in the national interest of the United States,” as well as in the interests of Palestinians and Israelis.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Abbas aide and veteran Palestinian negotiator, said in a statement on Friday that the demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state before negotiations was “an admission by Netanyahu that he cannot deliver on peace” and a stalling tactic. He noted that the Palestine Liberation Organization had already recognized the state of Israel while Mr. Netanyahu “refuses to even mention a Palestinian state.”

Palestinians contend that recognition of Israel’s Jewish character would negate Palestinian refugees’ demand for the right of return and would be detrimental to the status of Israel’s Arab citizens, who make up a fifth of the population."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/18/world/middleeast/18mideast.html?ref=middleeast

[Vegasaurus]

11. Don't you agree that the Palestinians need to find unity with themselves

before there can be any consideration of anything with Israel?

They don't even agree on how to proceed with Israel.

Hamas still wants to destroy Israel, and Abbas is talking about negotiation for a two-state deal.

I'd say that if Hamas and Fatah don't both agree to talks, Israel can isolate itself and partake in nothing.

[shira]

12. nah, Israel just needs to agree to 2 states so the PA can reject it again and call it all a trap

2000-01 redux.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. This time, Israel needs to agree to two viable states;

not one state and one impoverished swiss cheese.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. No, absolutely not.

I think that peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians should start as soon as possible.

The biggest source of support for Hamas is the fact that there seems to be little chance of the Palestinians achieving a viable state through peaceful means.

The best way to reduce Palestinian support for violence is to give them an alternative option. And that means starting peace talks with anyone who is willing to talk, as soon as possible, and Israel and the US making concrete commitments.

[azurnoir]

16. Just think if the UK had held feet to the fire

about "unity" and renouncing terrorism 60 years ago the way some desire here to be done to the Palestinians how long would it have been if ever before there was an Israel

[grassfed]

15. Cheap theatrics while Ethnic Cleansing accelerates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxxMppPxXCw

“What kind of a nation deliberately denies nutrition to children?”

U.N.’s Richard Falk Finds Israel Guilty of “New War Crime”: Targeting Trapped Civilians

U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Falk speaks at UCLA (Courtesy UCLA Office of Media Relations).

“THERE IS no doubt the Israelis violated Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention from Dec. 27 to Jan. 18, but they also should be held responsible for a New War Crime: weakening an occupied population by extended food and medical boycotts and then targeting the people in areas from which there is no escape.”

So said Richard Falk, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, at a Jan. 21 “Human Rights and Gaza” Symposium at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Israel’s advanced military arsenal devastated all of Gaza, but the Palestinians won the war, reasoned Falk, saying the Palestinians are winning the legitimacy war. Public opinion was mobilized globally, he stressed, by the horrific images of a defenseless population lacking even bomb shelters being attacked week after week by the world’s fourth largest military power.

UCLA history professor Gabriel Piterberg cited the comment by an Israeli pilot of a U.S.-made Apache helicopter gunship that Dresden will pale in comparison to Gaza.

UC Santa Barbara Professor Lisa Hajjar discussed what is legal in terms of war and what an occupying power is permitted and not permitted to do under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite Israel’s claim that it no longer occupies Gaza, it controls Gaza’s air, sea and land borders, thus imprisoning its residents.

Apartheid practices, ethnic cleansing, shooting surrendered populations are all war crimes, Dr. Hajjar stated. Furthermore, she noted a military power attacking a defenseless civilian population constitutes a war crime in itself.

Noted UCLA professor Saree Makdisi: “What if the British had sealed off Northern Ireland and dropped thousands of tons of ordnance on the IRA dissidents as well as the civilian population? The thing is,” he noted, “it did not .”

Makdisi pointed out that there are more than 750,00 children in Gaza, many malnourished because of Israel’s draconian 18-month blockade of food and medical supplies.

“What kind of a nation deliberately denies nutrition to children?” he asked.

The panelists concurred that Israel’s disproportionate pummeling of Gaza displayed a viciousness reminiscent of the last phases of other colonial wars. Professor Piterberg compared Israel’s decision to use white phosphorous to French tactics before withdrawing from Algeria.

http://www.wrmea.com/archives/April_2009/0904036.html

[excess_3]

17. simple solution, recognize Gaza and West Bankia as countries

everybody wins

also, sponsor their membership
in the UN