| Submit your comments on this article |
| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| Arab League tells Israel: Accept Saudi initiative now or never |
| 2009-03-30 |
| Arab leaders in Qatar for the Arab League summit sent Israel an ultimatum Sunday: Accept the Saudi Peace Initiative or it will be rescinded. The draft proposal of the statement states: "The peace initiative being proposed today will not be on offer for a long time. Arab commitment to this initiative is dependent on Israeli acceptance." The draft proposal was formulated by the Arab foreign ministers, and will be presented to the Arab League's leaders Monday for approval. The wording is a compromise between the hardline Arab countries, mainly Syria and Qatar, and the moderates, including Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Egypt is to be represented at the summit by a very low-level official after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit declined to participate, reportedly due to anger at Qatar for making overtures to Hamas. Egypt has demanded Qatar not invite Iranian President Mohammed Ahmadinejad to the summit, and stop its criticism of Egypt on the Al-Jazeera network, which began after Operation Cast Lead. Most reports over the past week indicated that Ahmadinejad would not come to the summit, although he could still show up by surprise. Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, arrived in Qatar on Sunday despite a warrant for his arrest issued by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, on charges of involvement in the massacre of his countrymen in Darfur. Palestinian Authority sources said they hoped the summit would not widen the breach among Palestinians, and called on Arab leaders to support the PLO and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) will be attending meetings associated with the summit. Speaking by phone from Doha, he told Haaretz that he had met with officials from Yemen and other Gulf countries. "My opinion, which is what I represent here, is that the international community must force Israel to accept the two-state solution and work to establish a Palestinian state, and if not, a diplomatic price should be paid," Tibi said. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #12 all on the Israeli side of Jerusalem, I bet |
| Posted by: Frank G 2009-03-30 23:51 |
| #11 Arafat refused peace over about 7 acres. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2009-03-30 23:42 |
| #10 It's now or never, come hold me tight Kiss me my darling, be mine tonight Tomorrow will be too late, it's now or never My love won't wait. |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-03-30 18:05 |
| #9 Isreal already offered everything the Palestinians wanted to gain peace and Arafat and the Palestinians said screw that!! If the Palestinians want peace I think Isreal should give them a lot of peace, or should I say pieces!! Semper Fi!! |
| Posted by: Howie@CW 2009-03-30 17:35 |
| #8 "Please send out your weak and elderly & we will spare your young - today. (No guarantees about tomorrow....)" Fixed that for ya', Mitch. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-03-30 16:25 |
| #7 AKA: The League of Exploding Gentlemen |
| Posted by: mojo 2009-03-30 16:20 |
| #6 Today, a conference of jackals and lions issued a communique demanding that herd of gazelles accept the new hyena initiative. The draft proposal of the statement states: "the dinner initiative being proposed today will not be on offer for at least another week. Predator commitment to this initative is dependant on prey acceptance. Please send out your weak and elderly & we will spare your young." The wording is a compromise between scavengers & carrion-eaters and the greater predators. |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2009-03-30 15:46 |
| #5 Of course, there's another way too, build a giant trebuchet, and fire the prisoners into Gaza or the West Bank, tied to large rocks. After spending time in Israeli prison, the Palestinians weigh enough that there's no need for extra rocks to give them enough heft to produce a decent trajectory, Silentbrick. Separately, the Saudi initiative, in reality the Thomas L. Friedman initiative -- Mr. Friedman having taken a bit of idle dinner conversation and puffed it up in his New York Times column -- called for Israel to retreat to the pre-1967 war boundaries. This was never a possibility except as a starting point for negotiations along the lines of, "No, but here's our counteroffer." Incoming Prime Minister Netanyahu is no Olmert; there was never any possibility he'd fall for such nonsense. I do love that last paragraph: MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List-Ta'al) will be attending meetings associated with the summit. Speaking by phone from Doha, he told Haaretz that he had met with officials from Yemen and other Gulf countries. "My opinion, which is what I represent here, is that the international community must force Israel to accept the two-state solution and work to establish a Palestinian state, and if not, a diplomatic price should be paid," Tibi said. "Must force"? One can only hope MK Lieberman will demand his colleague take that loyalty oath upon his return. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-03-30 13:02 |
| #4 You know, Israel should agree to swap all their prisoners for Shalit. Tell wackjobs that they'll give up every prisoner they've got for Shalit. There's only -1- condition. Whatever condition Shalit is in, that's the condition they get back their prisoners. So if Shalit is dead...well, I'm sure Israel has enough ammo to put all their Hamas types in the same condition. Of course, there's another way too, build a giant trebuchet, and fire the prisoners into Gaza or the West Bank, tied to large rocks. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2009-03-30 08:55 |
| #3 Amalek delenda est. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-03-30 04:40 |
| #2 Nuts! |
| Posted by: Spike Uniter 2009-03-30 02:35 |
| #1 Netanyahu to Saudis. Accept conversion to Judaism or go f.. yourselves |
| Posted by: JFM 2009-03-30 01:42 |