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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Mideast leaders to address core issues |
| 2008-01-09 |
| The Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed Tuesday to begin tackling the core issues of a peace agreement in a push to revive stalled negotiations ahead of the arrival of President Bush. I guess they'll have to. Omelette doesn't have a moustache worth insulting. The renewed peace talks, "We think the visit is an opportunity to energize the momentum of the post Annapolis dialogue between us and the Palestinians," Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said. But as we all know, the Paleos never fail to fail, so I doubt anyone in the Israeli government is too worried about things. Also Tuesday, a pair of Lebanese rockets struck a northern Israeli town before dawn, the second strike from across the border since Israel's summer 2006 war with Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas. No one took responsibility for the attack. United Nations spokeswoman Michele Montas said U.N. officials had begun investigating the rocket fire, and she did not dispute the notion that the rockets may have been fired from an area where U.N. peacekeepers operate. The "peacekeepers" probably had a bet going with Hezballah on whether or not they'd hit a house. At their meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged to have negotiators begin work immediately on the so-called final status issues. These issues include the final borders between Israel and a future Palestinian state, competing claims to the holy city of Jerusalem, the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and Israeli security concerns. Both Regev and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the two leaders authorized their chief negotiators "to conduct direct and ongoing negotiations on all the final status issues." "The president (Abbas) urged that the year of 2008 be a year of peace," Erekat said. Then in 2009 the hudna will be over. Both Israeli and Palestinian officials said their decision to begin work on the conflict's deepest issues was influenced by the Bush visit. Have they settled on the shape of the table yet? Or does that have to be flown in with W, too? The Palestinians are furious about Israeli plans to build new housing in east Jerusalem and the West Bank — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and claimed by the Palestinians for their future state. I wonder what they'd be "furious" about if it wasn't for the housing issue. Israel, for its part, has demanded that Palestinian forces do more to rein in militants in the West Bank. Since Olmert and Abbas last met, two Israelis were killed in the West Bank, and Israeli security forces blame members of Abbas' Fatah movement. "The Palestinians need to do everything they can to fight terror. Israel frankly needs to look at its road map obligations and to do nothing that would prejudge the final status agreement," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who will be accompanying Bush, told Israel's Channel 10 TV. Why aren't you telling the The U.S.-backed "road map" peace plan requires Israel to freeze settlement construction and the Palestinians to crack down on militants. How about the Israelis get to build ten new houses for each missile launched into Israeli territory? That way the Paleos would have control of the Israeli behavior of what is making them so "furious"! During Tuesday's meeting, the Palestinians called on Israel to halt settlement activity and urged Israel to stop carrying out military operations such as last week's raids on the West Bank city of Nablus, saying it damaged Abbas' credibility on the Palestinian street. I guess I don't understand what passes for credibility for the Paleos, and I also don't understand what credibility buys a Paleo leader. Israel says it cannot relinquish security responsibilities to the Palestinians because they are not ready. Must . . not . . snark! Further casting a shadow over peace efforts is the Hamas militant group's control of the Gaza Strip. Hamas seized the area last June after routing Abbas' forces. I'd call it chaos. The group, which is committed to Israel's destruction, opposes the U.S.-led peace efforts. While talking peace with Abbas, Israel conducts military operations in Gaza almost every day to halt rocket-launching squads. Dozens of militants have been killed in recent weeks. Everyone misses them so. On Wednesday, Israeli ground forces shot a missile toward Palestinian militants launching mortar shells from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, killing one and injuring six, Palestinian medics and the Islamic Jihad militant group said. I believe it. Got any video footage of that? The Israeli army confirmed that troops fired a surface-to-surface missile from Israel toward the Gaza militants. The group had earlier fired four mortars toward southern Israel and other militants fired two rockets, the army said. No injuries were reported in Israel. No word yet from the Gazans involved. In Gaza, Hamas said it would hold a rally against the Bush visit on Wednesday. Stores are preparing for a rush on rocks and jars of spittle. "You killer of children, go. You are not welcome in the Holy Land," Hamas said in a leaflet. So we agree that killers of children should "go", right? Israeli hardliners critical of Bush's peace efforts put up posters on a main Jerusalem road showing Bush, Olmert and Israeli President Shimon Peres wearing traditional Arab headdresses, under the title, "Accomplices to Terror." Police said they detained six people who put up the posters for questioning. Hmm. Seems g(r)om has been pretty quiet for a bit . . . . Israeli police, meanwhile, were preparing for a major deployment for Bush's visit. In all, 10,500 police, including 9,000 brought in from other areas of the country, will be stationed across the city, police chief Micky Rosenfeld said. Main streets across Jerusalem were to be closed at midnight, snarling traffic for the city's 750,000 residents. Next time hold this in the summer and you won't have to close all the streets. Just shoot the folks wearing overcoats. The military said that as an added security precaution it was barring all entry to Israel by Palestinians, from midnight Tuesday until after Bush leaves Friday. Careful, they'll be furious. In the West Bank town of Ramallah, Abbas' headquarters were painted inside and out, and a main courtyard was repaved. Ah! A new coat of paint always spruces up the cave! |
| Posted by:gorb |