90 Minutes of Failing Peace Talks

Israel and the Palestinians had a trying time of 90 minutes of peace talks which turned quickly into trading barbs at each other. It was more like a scene from the 1989 movie, "The War of the Roses" with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner which was about a failed marriage where neither party was willing to move out of the home they once shared. There was no love lost between these two.

This peace talk had turned into a mud-slinging event because there probably was no moderator there to prevent the tragedy. Israel had hoped to establish a framework of discussions to conclude with a peace deal by the end of 2008. This war between the Israelis and the Arab world has been going on for six decades now, and will need more than a few meetings to co-exist.

The tension in the air is said to have come from the announcement that Israel will build 307 homes in Jerusalem in an area that the Palestinians want for their future capital. No one has said that Israel has conceded to give up any part of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. It has been talked about and debated about, but nothing conclusive has been said. Jerusalem belongs in total to Israel. Israel has the right to build in their own country. Jerusalem came into Israel's hands in 1967 after being terribly treated by the Jordanians. No one was a winner in those days. Jews couldn't enter Jerusalem and neither could Christians. Palestinians are assuming more than they should if they think that Israel will give up Jerusalem.

We haven't seen the Palestinians do one thing that would show their interest in the peace process like giving back the prisoners they took in Gaza, or in stopping the shelling from Gaza into Sderot.

The end result was that both sides will continue talking in the coming weeks.