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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Palestinian Authority may collapse without peace deal: Erakat |
| 2008-03-20 |
| Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat warned on Wednesday that failure to reach a peace deal with Israel this year could lead to a collapse of the moderate Palestinian Authority. "If we fail to produce an agreement in 2008... we may disappear," Erakat said. "The impact will not be limited to Israel and the Palestinians. Watch the region," he warned. Israel and the Palestinians, led by president Mahmud Abbas, last November relaunched the Middle East peace talks at an international conference in the United States after a seven-year hiatus. Although both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have expressed their desire to ink a deal by the end of 2008, talks have so far made little headway. Abbas said after meeting Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel in the West Bank town of Ramallah that peace talks were the only option for the Palestinians. "We don't have any other options but to negotiate. Time is short and we must reach a result before the end of the year," he said. Erakat declined to say whether the Islamist Hamas movement could rout Abbas in the West Bank, but conceded the popularity of Abbas has declined sharply while support for the Islamists has risen. "People are angry with us... their pessimism and anger is because of our inability to deliver," he said, referring to a recent poll. The Islamist movement last June violently seized power in Gaza after routing forces loyal to Abbas, effectively splitting the Palestinian Authority in two. Erakat claimed Israel's failure to carry out its commitment to freeze its settlement construction and to ease movement restrictions in the occupied West Bank undermined Abbas's credibility. "At the same time we tell (Palestinians) we will make 2008 the year of peace, we fail to stop roadblocks, we fail to stop settlement activity." He said Olmert personally pledged to Abbas the roadblocks would be removed, but that nothing was done about it. And since the November conference in Annapolis, where Israel committed to halt Jewish settlement activity, 5,378 settlers' houses were built, said Erakat. "Settlement activity must stop... it's either settlements or peace," the negotiator said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 I had a great idea for a tee shirt... Settlements have nothing to do with Rockets BUT Rockets have EVERYTHING to do with settlements As far as I know I came up with this - google searched it and it has not been coined yet... My gift to Rantburg... Could probably make a few bucks on it I reckon... Sell it to trolls :P |
| Posted by: mac-d-only 2008-03-20 23:01 |
| #7 Bullshit. If they go under who's gonna be around to mooch all that international aid money for their "people"? Hamas? They'll have to peel the keys to that piggy bank out of Abbas's cold, dead hand. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2008-03-20 22:48 |
| #6 No Paleostinian Authority, no Oslo Agreement in force any more. No Oslo agreement, no electricity, no water obligations for Israel. Like the Russians say, "Tough Schitskis." |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-03-20 22:07 |
| #5 "Turn out the lights, the party's over..." |
| Posted by: Jomosing Bluetooth8431 2008-03-20 15:01 |
| #4 How can an anarchy collapse? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-03-20 14:37 |
| #3 and this should concern us how? After watching the "Palestinians" for as long as there have been "Palestinians" (I was born in 1948), I firmly believe that the only way for Israel to deal with them is to take the land that Israel wants (including all of Jerusalem and most of the West Bank), expel all Muslims from Israel and keep them out. Ignore the bleating from the liberal European anti-Semites and kill anyone who shoots at them. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-03-20 09:33 |
| #2 Standard Arab tactic---scare the USDS by threatening their dreams, and they'll convince the administration into pressuring Israel---that's how a Palestinian Nation was created out of thin air. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-03-20 08:50 |
| #1 But Senator McCain said from Israel that he doesn't believe a peace deal can be consummated this year. Oh, well. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-20 02:32 |