Mid-East Roadmap, Is it working?

Waiting for an attack sounds like Israel's MO.

They have stated they aren't following the US advice on this. You think they're bluffing about that?

or provoking an attack

Agreed, dys.

I second. Every attack by the Palestinians is a victory for Sharona nd Co., becasue it gives them justification for another counter. Both sides are wrong. Neither wants peace, both want victory. Even if it means most of their own side dies in the process.

I always thought they were smart fellows too!

From today's Jerusalem Post:

And the proof of that conclusion is?

Hobitbob

If that is as you say why hasn't Arafat put a stop to these attacks? In fact if Sharon is such a menace why did Arafat with his intafada get him elected.

AU, if you would actually read my posts, and not just decide "oh, he's an Arab..." you would find that I have been saying for months that neither side wishes for peace. Arafat isn't likely to ask for a cease-fire any more than Sharon is. Both sides want total victory. Neither side is likely to be successfull.

Hobitbob
My answer had nothing at all to do with whether you were an Arab or not.
I disagree that neither side wants peace. They both do but on their own terms. I believe that Arafat's terms are too steep since they include the elimination of the state of Israel. Sharon on the other hand must remove the West bank settlements. Here a thought allow the settlers to remain in place if the chose to and have them become Palestinian citizens similar to the Palestinians who are Israeli citizens.
Regarding the exile or elimination of Arafat. That in my opinion would be a grave error.

au, There are also some Israeli's that want the total removal of Palestinians from Israel. Maybe a small minority, but there are some, because they think the Palestinians want the same for them. With extremists on both sides, the likelihood for peace will be nearly impossible. The first order of business must be to find out how the extremists on both sides can be placaded to agree to a peace settlement.
Ignoring them will not solve the major problems of the dispute.

C.I.
This Is an artice from the Jerusalem post.

Sep. 11, 2003
Teaching Israeli Arabs to love Palestine, By Itamar Marcus



The following appeared this week in the Palestinian daily Al Hayat al-Jadida: "The teacher wondered how any geography teacher in the Arab schools could convince his students that "Safad" [in Arabic] was changed to "Zefat" [Hebrew] and that Sefuriya [Arabic] had suddenly became "Zipori" [Hebrew].

"He expressed the opinion that the students would rip up these maps and the teacher who would accept them would be considered a traitor... He was reminded of [a recent] distribution of Israeli flags... the students ripped them to pieces and threw them in the garbage...."

These words wouldn't surprise if they were attributed to a teacher in the Palestinian Authority school system. However the person quoted is an Israeli Arab teacher on salary from the Ministry of Education. The children ripping up Israeli flags are Israeli Arabs.

With the media focus on the Or Commission's criticism of the Israel Police during the Israeli Arab riots, it is virtually forgotten why the police were shooting.

It was October 2000. The Palestinian Authority had started a war against Israel. Two days into the war thousands of Israeli Arabs throughout Galilee joined the battle on the side of Israel's enemies, supported vocally by their leaders and passively by the general population.

They threw stones, firebombs, burned tires, killed an Israeli Jew and injured many others, and closed down the main roads of the North for days.

Israel, it seems, has lost the allegiance of 20 percent of its citizens, who in time of war side with the enemy. How did this happen?

While there are many contributing factors, there is ample evidence that this transfer of allegiance was a primary goal of the Palestinian Authority long before the start of the October 2000 war.

The PA implemented a systematic and determined policy toward Israel's Arabs, especially the youth, targeting them continuously with the message that their identity and allegiance should be with the PA alone. At the PA's initiative, there was a never-ending series of PA-Israeli Arab educational, sporting, and cultural events. The message - explicit and implicit - was one of joint history, culture, and destiny.

When the PA decided to have a "Miss Palestine" contest in 1999, it included Israeli Arabs girls. Moreover, the PA made sure that six out of the 10 finalists, and the winner, were all Israeli Arabs. When the PA set up a national soccer team the coach was an Israeli Arab from Nazareth.

There are numerous organizations and programs in the PA whose sole purpose is to promote this involvement and identity. These include: Committee for Relations with 1948, Children without Borders, Contacts between the members of a United People, Relations without Borders - all of whose activities are aimed, according to the PA daily: "to increase the contact and affinity between the members of the Palestinian people in the West Bank, the inside [Israel] and the Gaza Strip. (Al-Kuds, May 24, 1999).

ARAFAT'S OFFICE has a special unit, the Committee for Contacts with the Residents of Occupied Palestine. Terms like "Inside Arabs" and the "Residents of Occupied Palestine" are all PA euphemisms for Israeli Arabs.

The PA has denied the possibility of the existence of an Israeli Arab identity, writing in one 1999 editorial: "How can the executioner and the victim be one?" (Al-Hayat al-Jadida August 18, 1999.

The PA has been careful to send representatives to events internal to Israeli Arabs. Numerous graduation ceremonies in Jerusalem and the Galilee had no representative from the Ministry of Education - but did have a PA representative. For instance, Al-Hayat al-Jadida of May 25 1999 reported: "A year end ceremony in a Jerusalem school was held in the presence of the PA Ministry of Education representative, and the Palestinian national anthem was sounded."

Such gestures were actively supported by Arab leaders like MK Azmi Bishara, who marched with Israeli Arab youth waving PA flags. Bishara explained that were the young people to lose their Palestinian identity all that would remain would be family and tribal ties.

"The blue [Israeli ID ] card card you have in your pocket is not an identity card; it is a residence card."

The PA initiated the process of "de-Israelizing" of Israel's Arabs, and found in them willing partners. It happened openly, under the eyes of the government, which did nothing to try to win the allegiance of its citizens.

Today's Israeli Arab attitude might be summed up by the following description, which ran in the April 20, 1999 edition of Al Quds: "[Israel] is not their state, its interests are not their interests, its symbols are not their symbols, its policy is not their policy."

Tragically, even if this does not accurately reflect Israeli Arabs today, it may well in the not too distant future.

The writer is director of Palestinian Media Watch (http://www.pmw.org.il).

au, I give the roadmap zilch chance of success. Forget peace initiatives, because there's too much hatred on both sides of the fence. I wonder when they'll realize that the continued hate and killings only guarantees further hate and killings - generation after generation. If I were living in that area, I would move my family to another country - for sure. A piece of land or house is not worth that much sacrifice.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/966819.asp?0dm=N15NN

Now, they're saying it out loud. Civil war may be the only way to settle... Arafat may be a martyr, but he will eventually disappear from conciousness.

It's a delaying tactic. It's very convenient for Israel to suggest that delayed statehood, continued occupation and civil war are what the Palestinians need.

And the cycle of violence in the middle east continues unabated

Suicide Blast Kills 18 in Northern Israel
JERUSALEM (AP) - A Palestinian suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded Mediterranean beach restaurant Saturday, killing at least 18 people. The attack, one of the deadliest in the past three years, raised the possibility Israel might take action against Yasser Arafat. About 40 people were wounded in the attack on the Arab-owned Maxim Restaurant in the northern port city of Haifa, which came on the Sabbath before Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. TV reports said five children were among the dead.

The cycle of arrogation continues unabated as well.

Israel to expand settlement

Israel has launched a tender for the construction of 550 new homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
Almost all the houses will be built in the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Elit, near Jerusalem.

The announcement comes a day after the government agreed plans to build protective fences around several West Bank settlements.

About 400,000 Israelis live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, in settlements widely regarded as illegal under international law.

The Israeli housing ministry says this decision is part of its policy to create more housing across the whole of Israel, not just the occupied territories.


It was, according to a spokesman, intended "to develop the communities in accordance with their needs and natural growth".
Despite international laws banning settlement in occupied areas, Jewish settlement building has expanded continually since Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza in 1967, increasing rapidly in the late 1970s when the current Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, was housing minister.

The pressure group Peace Now said the latest decision showed the housing ministry was acting as "a master planner for the settlers".

Housing Minister Effi Eitam is a member of the far-right National Religious Party, which has close links with the settlers.

Fence appeal

The Palestinian Authority has appealed to the nations that backed the now-stalled roadmap peace plan to stop any extension of the fence through the West Bank, because it will cut off Palestinian villages and towns from other Palestinian areas.

The main backer of that peace plan, the United States, had expressed concern, so for now Israel is not going to join up the new section with the old.

But the BBC's Jannat Jalil - reporting from Jerusalem - says many Palestinians are worried that Israel will delay the move until US President George W Bush is distracted by his re-election campaign.

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/3158036.stm

Published: 2003/10/02 10:40:40 GMT

The expansion and killings continues......