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One State the Alternative to Two-State Solution - Arab League Secretary General Musa
DEAD SEA - "If Israel continues not to accept solving the Palestinian issue on the basis of a two-state solution, then the other option before us is one democratic state in which Muslims, Christians and Jews live side by side enjoying the same rights," Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Nader Dahabi (center) attends a session on peace during the World Economic Forum at the Dead Sea on Sunday (Petra photo) Musa's remarks were made during a World Economic Forum (WEF) session titled, "The Future of Peacemaking". He added: "The situation in this region is unstable and dangerous and US President [Barack] Obama should properly address the Arab-Israeli conflict and, in particular, the Palestinian issue. There must be a viable Palestinian state and a comprehensive peace that should involve Syria and Lebanon."
Musa pointed out that freezing settlement construction is the answer rather than dismantling the settlements built inside the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Even the Israeli supreme court has considered several settlements as illegal, the Israelis have to start dismantling these illegal settlements. I cannot imagine how the negotiations can resume and at the same time, the Israelis are building more settlements. In fact, it was our mistake that we accepted to go to negotiations while the settlements were being built," Musa said.
Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, who participated in the session, stressed the importance of the US administration's role in the peace process and the Arab Peace Initiative, which offers Israel normal relations with 57 Arab and Muslims countries, stressing that the Israeli settlements are a major obstacle to peace in the region.
"The US should exert pressure on Israel to seize the building of new settlements in the occupied territories and improve the living conditions of the Palestinians. The Israelis must know that time is right to go ahead with negotiations, no more process but negotiations," the premier said, adding that this is in the national interest of the US and an international interest of the entire world.
Dahabi added that the US should invite all parties to Washington, including the Palestinians, the Syrians, the Lebanese and the Israelis on a bilateral or multilateral basis to reach results that show the end of the way.
"His Majesty [King Abdullah] said that we don't want a new process; we would like to go directly into negotiations, sit down together, rule out our differences, define what we want, which, from our side, is a viable Palestinian state," Dahabi said, adding that in return, Israel's security will be guaranteed by all parties besides normalisation of relations with Arab states.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad emphasised that concrete steps need to be taken by each side regardless of how the upcoming plans of the peace process would be, adding that it is of paramount importance that focus be given on what should be done immediately by the Israeli side.
"Regardless of the approach, Israel has to be in full compliance with the requirements and obligations under the roadmap peace plan in terms of a complete and comprehensive freeze of the establishment of settlements, stopping incursions into areas under Palestinian control and ensuring the freedom of movement and free access," Fayyad said, adding that before negotiations can continue, it is important that focus is given to what must be done now to give credibility to the peace process.
US Congressman Brian Baird (D-WA) said the issue of enhancing the economic conditions of the Palestinians is important but it is not enough.
"We must have an independent and viable opportunity for the Palestinians to have their own state and at the same time a complete seizure of settlement construction." However, he added, while the US will push Israel to stop building settlements, among other things, "you have to assure your neighbour that their security is assured... by denouncing rocket attacks and denouncing those who say we should wipe Israel off the face of the earth".
Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Alexander Saltanov agreed that "we can't talk about security in the area without a Palestinian state".
Tackling the Israeli-Palestinian issue must be part of a comprehensive approach addressing the wider Arab-Israeli conflict, nuclear proliferation, extremism and social problems, Saltanov told participants, adding that "we must understand that security of the world and the Middle East is indivisible".
Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who urged the US to respect its promise to withdraw from Iraq in 2011, said the nuclear situation is an integral part of regional security.
He said that there has been an anti-US movement in the region because of the US policy in Palestine, Iraq and other Arab and Muslim countries, adding that addressing all sensitive issues in the Middle East, including the Palestinian cause, will be beneficial to all partners of the US and enhance its image in the this region.
With regard to Iran, Musa called on the US to establish as soon as possible a dialogue with Iran, adding: "But as we talk about a world free of nuclear weapons, the US should bear in mind that there is a country already possessing nuclear weapons. We need a fair and positive deal in this question by the US. Do not talk about Iran while leaving Israel outside the talks."
Dahabi said this part of the world is entitled to have access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes and not for military purposes, adding that at the same time, "we have to tell everybody that this part of the world has to be clear of nuclear weapons; everybody has to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty".
Peres
Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomed the prospect of a new US drive for a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement during a visit Sunday to Jordan, Agence France-Presse reported.
"I think it is a very encouraging and timely proposition. Time has come to depose war, hatred and terror and come to real business - how to assure the life, the safety and the future of our children," Peres told a session of WEF on the shores of the Dead Sea.
"We were negotiating with them [the Palestinians] for quite a while. I think the gap was narrowed and I do believe it is a bridgeable gap. With... a little bit of fresh ideas, it can be bridged."
King Abdullah met with Peres yesterday. His Majesty, according to a Royal Court statement, stressed to Peres that peace means the creation of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel.
- Posted in
122 Comments so far
Show AllMusa pointed out that freezing settlement construction is the answer rather than dismantling the settlements built inside the occupied Palestinian territories....
Wow if that isn't a concession I don't know what is!
They should at least go back to post 6-day war boundaries before the illegal settlements.
History did not begin in 1948!
Under the principle of estoppel, International Law made in 1919 in Paris by King Feisal and Weizman is still valid. It agreed to divide Palestine in two. No UN resolution (chapter 6 or 7) or Oslo etc can over ride such an International Law.
All this talk of illegal settlements and occupation is just puff! It has no legality. It is just the ramblings of illiterates, anti-semites and loony Lefties.
The true path to peace is to recognise the rights of Jews to the Land of Israel as defined in the Paris Agreement.
Obama was sworn in on the Bible and his Dollars bear the inscription :In God We Trust. He should remember this when pontificating on the fate of Israel.
The God of War is the God you you hide behind.
Faisal, a Saudi who was installed by the British as king of Syria and then of Iraq, had no right to give away Palestinian land or rights; this is a bogus argument, and estoppel does not apply.
The problem for the Zionist occupiers of Israel is that the age of colonialism is over. The dispossession of native peoples such as the Palestinians by invaders such as the European Jews just won't be allowed to succeed. Through their unceasing theft of Palestinian land and water resources, the Zionists have worked to make a Palestinian state impossible to achieve; ironically, the Zionists have doomed the possibility of an enduring "Jewish" state.
If there can be no Palestinian state, there can be no Jewish state, either, because there will have to be ONE state, where the Palestinians and Jews will have equal rights. Just like South Africa, Israel will have to give up apartheid.
Unfortunately, the Zionists who control Israel have made Jews in the diaspora much less safe, as hatred of Israel increases day by day. It is important to remember that Zionists represent Jews in the same way that the Ku Klux Klan represents Christians.
Well said
"Zionists represent Jews in the same way that the Ku Klux Klan represents Christians." Powerful and true that.
Bullhockey. Zionism was and is energetically and forcefully advocated by the vast majority of Jews.
You're just trying to duck responsibility, and it's disgusting.
Not US Jews, according to Joel Kovel and the work of Norman Finkelstein the majority of US Jews do not support Zionism or the policies of Israel.
Link, please. I'd be happy to hear it, but it sure doesn't bear out what's in front of our eyes.
try google.
Norman Finkelstein
Joel Kovel
Ilan Pappe
Schlomo Sand
They are academics and authors, one must read a book once in a while.
And one must not have a link.
Petrkrop: “The problem for the Zionist occupiers of Israel is that the age of colonialism is over. The dispossession of native peoples such as the Palestinians by invaders such as the European Jews just won't be allowed to succeed. Through their unceasing theft of Palestinian”
Colonialism is when country X sent troops to occupy a land, then sent colonists of country X to settle that land. (Carrying arms and flags of the occupying country)
Jews were returning to the land of their ancestors after many years in exile. They immigrated legally. The vast majority the Jewish immigrants were not citizens of the Ottoman Empire or the British Empire (The occupying forces) and they didn’t carry their flags.
Also, the European Jews constitute only 38% of Israeli citizens, the rest are Middle Eastern Jews, and other minorities.
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Petrkrop: “the Zionists who control Israel have made Jews in the diaspora much less safe”
I beg the difference. Anti-Semitism and persecution against Jews flourished for almost two millennia. I have a theory that if Israel would have been created before the Holocaust (As was proposed by the Feisal-Weizmann agreement in 1919 or by the Peel comity in 1937) then the Holocaust might have been prevented or at least reduced in scale.
"Jews were returning to the land of their ancestors after many years in exile" I beg to differ: this is nothing more than religio/nationalist mythology to justify oppressing, dispossessing, and ethnically cleansing the indigenous population. It is racist and imperialist on its face. Once again we see white wealthy westerners coming in to opress the poor brown folks. Blame the victims all over again
Dr. Schlomo Sand, Ilan Pappe and Norman Finkelstein have a lot to say, check them out. And please read what they have to say before calling them traitors or self-hating Jews, that is getting old already.
Socialist: “Once again we see white wealthy westerners coming in to opress the poor brown folks. Blame the victims all over again”
First of all, half the Jews of Israel are Middle-Eastern Jews who are just as “brown” as the Palestinians.
Also – The Ethiopian Jews are black. Their skin complexion is darker than the Palestinian one.
It is inaccurate to assume that the conflict is about the skin color of Jews and Arabs.
Socialist: "Jews were returning to the land of their ancestors after many years in exile" I beg to differ: this is nothing more than religio/nationalist mythology to justify oppressing, dispossessing, and ethnically cleansing the indigenous population. It is racist and imperialist on its face."
Will you agree that before 135 A.D, the Jews were the majority of the people in Judea?
Will you agree that the Romans killed and expelled the Jews?
How long, in your opinion, people have to live in exile before they lose their “indigenousness”?
Please explain why saying that the Jews immigrated legally to the land of their ancestors is racism, equivalent to justifying oppressing, dispossessing, and ethnically cleansing?
you are mistaken,
If you cannot see the injustice then there is no point in arguing
Maybe there is injustice. I wasn’t talking with you about injustice, which is a subjective. (Some people may say that turning the clock back X number of years is justice, other people say that justice will only be served if you turn the clock back Y years.)
All I said is that the Jewish return to their homeland is not “colonialism” (At least not the same as British colonists colonizing Australia and America) and that the conflict has nothing to do with the skin color of the Jewish or Palestinian people as you falsely claim.
Sorry, but I don't buy that "homeland" assumption, and it's been batted down here so many times that I think posters have been tired of doing it.
It's not a return to a homeland, it is an illegal and immoral invasion, and I sympathize with the oppressed who are resisting. Israel is the cause of much misery, and to the extent that the Middle East is the biggest problem area of the world, Zionism is causing huge problems for everyone (else).
Are you, Wanderer, the same Wanderer who said that the majority of Jews alway wanted wars?
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/11#comment-1201566
Wanderer May 12th, 2009 9:24 am
Are you the same Letto who refuses to acknowledge the truth, no matter how many times it's presented to you? It's not surprising, it's the MO of Zionists - no lie too big or blatant not to try to foist. You haven't an ounce of credibility left. Shameless.
Horrifyingly enough, the vast majority of Jews continue to actively if not passively support the slow genocide of the Palestinians, and are only interested in the expansion of Israel (which is the open policy of Zionism). They are not interested in peace. If they were, then they have the clout to force Israel ("homeland of the Jews" supposedly) to sue for peace, but they're just not all that interested. Got it? It's called the reality of the situation.
Wanderer: “Are you the same Letto who refuses to acknowledge the truth”
No. I’m the other letto. I acknowledge the truth.
Now that I answered your question, will you finally tell us if you are the same Wanderer who claim most Jews always want war?
You aren't interested in the truth - not in the least. You're interested in protecting an immoral, genocidal war against the Palestinians. You Zionists haven't got an ounce of shame among the lot of you.
Thanks for the hate propaganda AIPAC reps
And what is the "truth" Wanderer?
That all Jews always wanted wars?
That the world will be a better place if all Jews are gone?
Is that the "truth" you're promoting?
You Zionists are so sleazy, you'll say anything no matter how much a lie or how distorting. You're flailing around trying to find some sort of anti-Jewish argument, and having lost that time after time, you're trying to generate one by lying. It's something Zionists do on a continuous basis.
I take it, since you're unable to address any of the substance of the issues, you're scrounging for anything. Pretty much indicates you've lost.
What makes you say I lost the debate? I don't think I lost.
I will ask again, since I oviously failed in getting an answer from you - Where exactly did I lie?
The huge majority of Zionists who moved to Israel in the 1940s were Europeans; their way had been prepared by Zionist terrorist gangs who were fighting against the British in Palestine even though British soldiers were fighting against the Nazis at the time. In fact, Avraham Stern, founder of the Stern Gang, revered in Israel, contacted the German Naval Attache in Ankara with the offer to fight the British in Palestine on behalf of the Nazis if they would guarantee a totalitarian Jewish state in Palestine after the war. Hitler turned down his offer and Stern was killed in a shoot out with the British in 1942.
Google the Stern Gang, LEHI, the King David Hotel Jerusalem.
Go to www.palestineremembered.com
Letto: "Colonialism is when country X sent troops to occupy a land, then sent colonists of country X to settle that land." This describes exactly Israel's ongoing theft of Palestinian land and water resources. The Israeli troops force the Palestinians out of their homes, and the Israeli "settlers" move in.
Letto: "Jews were returning to the land of their ancestors after many years in exile." Jewish historians have disproved this nonsense.
Ariel Sharon expressed the Zionist mindset very well:
“Even today I am willing to volunteer to do the dirty work for Israel, to kill as many Arabs as necessary, to deport them, to expel and burn them, to have everyone hate us, to pull the rug from underneath the feet of the Diaspora Jews, so that they will be forced to run to us crying. Even if it means blowing up one or two synagogues here and there, I don’t care. And I don’t mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal. Then you can spruce up your Jewish conscience and enter the respectable club of civilised nations, nations that are large and healthy. What you lot don’t understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it. True, it could have been finished in 1948, but you interfered, you stopped it. And all this because of the Jewishness in your souls, because of your Diaspora mentality. For the Jews don’t grasp things quickly. If you open your eyes and look around the world you will see that darkness is falling again. And we know what happens to a Jew who stays out in the dark. So I am glad that this small war in Lebanon frightened the Yids. Let them be afraid, let them suffer. They should hurry home before it gets really dark. So I am an anti-Semite? Fine. So don’t quote me, quote Lilienblum instead [an early Russian Zionist - ed.]. There is no need to quote an anti-Semite. Quote Lilienblum, and he is definitely not an anti-Semite, there is even a street in Tel Aviv named after him”.
petrkrop, in your earlier comment you was talking about Zionism and Israel in general. And not about the West bank. Please make out your mind. Are you accusing all Zionists and all Israelis as colonists or only the Jewish settlers in the West bank? Please clearify.
---
As for the picture you're trying to portrait, as if All the Zionists were Nazi supporters who fought with Nazi Germany against Britain - I would advise you to do some minimal research.
About 30,000 Jewish soldiers from Palestine fought with the British army against Nazi Germany in northern Africa, Italy and other places. (Such as the Jewish brigade)
Some Jewish organization, such as Lechi (which was headed by Stern, and who only had a few hundred supporters out of population of half a million Jews), fought the British, because the British blocked Palestine’s gates to Jewish refugees. (From 1939 till 1945, the British allowed only 15,000 Jews a year to enter Palestine, where millions were seeking refuge.)
I refer you to:
Dr. Shlomo Sand, Dr. Ilan Pappe, Dr. Norman Finkelstein for starters, it seems you have bought into the racist nationalist zionist propaganda and there is no point arguing with you. Let the experts lay out the facts and you can dispute them with your claims.
Can you show me exactly where I said something racist?
Perhaps quoting one racist sentence?
Thanks for your help, socialist.
By the way, I did read some articles and heard lectures by Dr. Shlomo ben Ami, Dr. Ilan Pappe, and Dr. Norman Finkelstein.
Duck and cover - doesn't work.
Please
OK,
Can you PLEASE show me exactly where did I say something racist?
You support oppression and genocide, and we're supposed to pretend you're some innocent. If a KKK supporter came on and asked us to prove he's a racist, he'd get the same horse-laughs you deserve for your statement.
Where exactly was I supporting oppression and genocide?
I say all humans and all nations are equal.
You say most Jews alwyas wanted wars.
Who is the racist?
For a good read on the scourge of the Jews, I recommend http://www.marxists.de/middleast/brenner/index.htm Lenni Brenner has created an excellent historical record on how things arrived at such a shameful state for the Jews.
The ashkenazi are not even Semitic! They have zero claim to any "homeland" ancestral or otherwise in Palestine.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
White Rose “The ashkenazi are not even Semitic! They have zero claim to any "homeland" ancestral or otherwise in Palestine.”
First of all, Ashkenazi Jews are only 38% of Israel’s citizens. The rest are Middle Eastern Jews and other minorities.
As for the origin of 38% of Israelies who are Ashkenazi Jews, instead of futile speculation, and theoretical debates base on unsupported evidence – why not examine modern DNA researches?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashkenazi_Jews
DNA clues
A study of haplotypes of the Y chromosome, published in 2000, addressed the paternal origins of Ashkenazi Jews. Hammer et al.[15] found that the Y chromosome of some Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews contained mutations that are also common among Middle Eastern peoples, but uncommon in the general European population. This suggested that the male ancestors of the Ashkenazi Jews could be traced mostly to the Middle East.
A 2005 study by Nebel et al., based on Y chromosome polymorphic markers, showed that Ashkenazi Jews are more closely related to other Jewish and Middle Eastern groups than to their host populations in Europe.
A 2006 study by Behar et al.[1], based on high-resolution analysis of haplogroup K(mtDNA), suggested that about 40% of the current Ashkenazi population is descended matrilineally from just four women, or "founder lineages", that were "likely from a Hebrew/Levantine mtDNA pool" originating in the Near East in the first and second centuries CE
In addition, Behar et al. have suggested that the rest of Ashkenazi mtDNA is originated from ~150 women, most of those were probably of Middle Eastern origin.
So What? How does that justify war crimes? ethnic cleansing? Face it you are advocating hate, violence and injustice. What a lovely thing to stand for.
Of course not.
Again, you see things that aren't there. I said that the Jews have a right to Call Israel their homlend.
There is no hatred, call to commit war crimes or ethnic clansing in that statement.
You can CALL any place you want your homeland. For example, Jews have the right to CALL New York their homeland. Just because you CALL some place your homeland doesn't give you the right to illegal invade, oppress, and commit genocide to those who not only CALL it their home but are actually living there. Somehow you think your right to call someplace a homeland supercedes those who actually have it as their homeland.
You can CALL any place you want your homeland. For example, Jews have the right to CALL New York their homeland. Just because you CALL some place your homeland doesn't give you the right to illegal invade, oppress, and commit genocide to those who not only CALL it their home but are actually living there. Somehow you think your right to call someplace a homeland supercedes those who actually have it as their homeland.
Where exactly did I say Jews (or anyone else for that matter) have a right to illegal invade, opress and commit genocide?
I never said so.
apologies for the double post
That's the dumbest thing I've ever read on this topic.
Hey look! Another article on Israel and BANG! a new poster suddenly pops up to defend Zionism (probably never to be heard form again) and call people antisemites. If I had a nickel for every time that happened...
Lemme see if I understand your very literarate, anti-Semitic gratuitous claim and your Rightie Looney talk:
You're saying that the only solution here is to give ALL of Palestine to the Jews because some dudes agreed to it once upon a time over a drink or two in a bar in Oslo? Cool! I think I actually like that better than the UN resolution take! Woo hoo!
Obama has sworn on the Bible...bwaaa haaaa...
Surprise, surprise! Israel has aboslutely NO, ZERO, ZILCH claim to any land anywhere. They're a bunch of self-loathing, self-victimizing, Holocust exploiting bloody bastards who claim to worship some invsible thing that even they don't even know what it it. That doesn't given them or anybody the right to claim something that isn't theirs! There will never be peace in the ME until Israel is either gone or at check. Period!
fivish:
Calling folks anti-Semites for criticizing illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, Apartheid and war crimes is itself deeply RACIST. As soon as you irrationally slandered us as "illiterates, anti-semites and loony Lefties" you shot any respect and credibility in the foot.
I would suggest you take your hateful propaganda to an AIPAC-freindly forum, as you will not get much traction here, my imperialist racist friend. By the way save your "self-hating Jew" and "traitor" racist slurs for them as well.
A solution based on our own civil rights legislation seems like a good start. All parties would occupy the same physical area, probably forming communities of "alikes" within communities of "mixed" somewhat like here in the U.S.. All citizens, and they would all be citizens of the same country; they come from the same region, experience the same weather and natural hardships, all are Semitic in origns, all should share in governing, and all must check their religions at the door of the governing assembly. Some names might need to be changed, and all mutual religious sites need to be accessible to all. But anything less than one state, one people, tolerating differences will never work in the long run.
I agree wholeheartedly that one state where all have equal rights is the most viable solution. Ethnically and religiously "pure" states are an anachronism. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis will go away. I doubt there can be a viable Palestinian state at this point. It will be difficult for them to live together but not harder than this never ending cycle of violence and retaliation.
Israel isn't quite an ethnically or religiously pure state anyway. Many Arab countries come much closer to that.
Maybe it's a tad late for that - Zionism continues to sow such seeds of hatred that I doubt there is a turning back. After all, Israel is nothing more than an illegal invasion by one group of people, and unless there is a way of rectifying the misery it has caused...
Everywhere zionists go anti-Semitism grows.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days