Jordan's King Abdullah: Israel must choose integration or isolation

[IndianaGreen]

Last update - 07:26 25/04/2009

Jordan's King Abdullah: Israel must choose integration or isolation

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Jordan's King Abdullah on Friday said that Israel must choose between integrating into the region or remaining isolated, and warned that delaying a two-state solution would be disastrous for Israelis and Palestinians.

The Jewish state can "integrate into the region...or to remain fortress Israel, isolated, holding itself and the entire region hostage to continued confrontation," Abdullah said during his visit to Washington.

Abdullah urged American leaders to back a two-state solution as outlined in the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers Israel normalized ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 war, the creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.

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On Monday, after meeting Abdullah, Obama urged Israel to accept the goal of a Palestinian state and invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June. Netanyahu is expected in Washington next month.

The king urged the United States to pressure Israel to stop "illegal settlement building" and moves to "force out" Jerusalem's Arab, Muslim and Christian population.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1080913.html

[Douglas Carpenter]

1. this is the part that boggles my mind. Israel simply has not future if they continue to see

themselves as the civilized island in a sea of savages. All the military power and force in the world cannot forever out muscle the forces of geography, demographics and most importantly the forces of history.

They really can change courses, if they want to. The alternative ultimately means their own self-destruction.