Brinkmanship of Fatah Has Palestinian Negotiators Walking Away

Nadene Goldfoot                                                             

        Saeb  Erekat, born in 1955 in East Jerusalem when it was under Jordanian Control

John Kerry is determined to reach a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal.  However, we just found out Wednesday that the 2 man Palestinian team, Saeb Erekat and Muhammad Shtayyeh,  had resigned 10 days ago in protest because Israel has continued construction in Judea/Samaria and east Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Israel seems to feel that the peace talks, which are given 9 months, are just keeping progress from moving along and intended to build. "Only two days earlier, Israel had announced plans to construct 1,700 new homes for Jewish settlers in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) . Palestinians angrily accused the Israelis of not negotiating in good faith."   The plans were in the works long ago and are much needed.   They had stopped for a year as agreed with Abbas and it was wasted time, as Abbas didn't come to any peace negotiations that time, either.  Israel has offered the olive branch ever since 1948 and has been very patient after being attack time and time again in wars by  the Arab countries.  That's 65 years without peace.  Now Kerry expects Israel to give away their baby with the bath water.  Give up everything, and what has Israel been offered?  Bubkas, as far as we know, since it is all very secret.

Abbas hasn't said if he would accept or reject the resignations.  He couldn't say if there has been any progress and will wait 9 months and afterwards they will feel free to do what they want.  Erekat thinks that because Israel is building this means it was the end of the peace process.  He's already told the US, Russia, the UN and the Arab League that these building plans mean that the negotiations ended.

Israel feels this is "brinkmanship", something that keeps on happening with the Palestinians and is a pattern that has happened many times.  It's their standard way of negotiating.

Netanyahu has told the housing minister to "reconsider" plans for the 24,000 units beyond the Green Line as a result.  "I'm concerned about their progress, because I see the Palestinians continuing with incitements, continuing to create artificial crises, continuing to avoid and run away from the historic decisions that are needed to make a genuine peace."   Abbas had to cut his visit to Saudi Arabia and return to Ramallah to talk with PLO and Fatah leaders about what is going on.  Since when are there any PLO people?  Supposedly PLO became Fatah.  Yasser Arafat had been the PLO leader.

The Palestinians are trying to take Jerusalem as their capital, among other factors that they have been demanding.  Jerusalem is a united city once again and the capital of Israel.  Another sticky point is allowing all the refugees who have multiplied since 1948 into this tiny area as the Palestinians demand.  Being they will not accept Israel in the first place in their midst, there are just too many idiotic concessions that they are demanding that will completely tear Israel apart, as little as it is and surrounded by hateful terrorists.   Personally, I think John Kerry is asking the impossible of Israel.  Also, he was aiming on having this all completed by May 2014, which is 6 months from now.

One important matter to Israel has been Iran.  Watching how the USA has capitulated to Iran shakes up Netanyahu's trust in the USA's negotiating, and this is a failure.  The way the peace talks with the PLO/Fatah is going looks like it's on the same path; both being against Israel's needs to survive.


Resource:  http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Abbas-Palestinian-peace-negotiators-resign-over-lack-of-progress-331604
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saeb_Erekat
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec13/mideast1_11-13.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec13/mideast2_11-13.html

Last Week, This Week, Israel Faces Attacks

Nadene Goldfoot                                                               

Last week there was a shootout, not at the OK corral, but in Judea-Samaria.  The IDF had the shootout with Mohammed Aazi who they wanted to arrest for the Tel Aviv bus bombing that caused injury to 20 people aboard the bus.  Instead of coming along quietly, he risked shooting and lost.

Also during that time, the IDF found a bomb placed in the security fence meant to go off when IDF military vehicles drove past.  They dismantled it.

Israel announced early Monday morning the names of the 26 prisoners they were letting out of prison in order for the peace initiative to go forward as demanded by the Palestinian Arabs.  They are all convicted murderers.  5 are from Gaza.  This was enough reason for Hamas in Gaza to fire off 2 rockets into Israel to show their unwillingness to go along with any Fatah-produced peace with Israel.  One of the rockets was aimed toward Ashkelon which the Iron Dome stopped  The 2nd fell nearby in an empty lot.

Israelis were quick to see the connection.  I wonder if Kerry and his contingent will understand the meaning of  the rockets.  Is this peace talk around the table now in a stalemate?

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/rockets-rain-israel-eve-prisoner-release/?utm_source=Breaking+Israel+News&utm_campaign=1771a1b26e-BIN+Email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b6d3627f72-1771a1b26e-83518689
http://virtualjerusalem.com/news.php?Itemid=11131

Has a 3rd Intifada Started?

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                      

The Islamic Jihad and Hamas have called for the 3rd intifada to begin against Israel.  Riots have broken out in some parts of Judea and Samaria even though the Palestinian Authority there has said that they don't want it to happen.  Six Israelis were injured.  This happened on the 13th anniversary of the 2nd Palestinian Intifada.  The 2nd one, or Al-Aqsa Intifada started in September 2000 and ended in 2005 with 3,000 Palestinians dead and 1,000 Israelis as well as 64 foreigners.  During peace negotiations, this tells us something.  Abbas does not have control over his people.  This is not demonstrating the value of their neighborliness.  It's showing why Netanyahu is so adamant about security.

Riots started up in Hebron, an ancient city of  Judah, on  September 27th. This is the city where Abraham bought a plot of land called the Cave of Machpelah in which to bury his wife, Sarah.  Jews had lived here since then, but in 1929, Arabs massacred almost all the 700 Jews in Hebron , causing survivors to flee.  Some returned in 19331 only to have faced more riots in 1936.  Today a mosque stands on this site.  After the Six Day War of 1967, a number of Jews again settled in Hebron, establishing the Kiryat Arba quarter east of the city.  They had a population of 3,700 in 1988.  Rioting has happened in east Jerusalem

Friday, which is the Muslim holy day and when Shabbat starts for Jews at sundown, an IDF soldier was wounded by a stone that was thrown at him just north of Hebron in the village of Beit Ummar.  He was treated right there by a medical team.  Dozens, meaning more than 24 Palestinians of Hebron were throwing stones and lighting their garbage cans on fire.  The IDF in return shot rubber bullets at the protesters, injuring about 4 Arabs.
                                                                           

                                                                    Ramallah
Other outbursts came from the old Christian village of Ni'lin outside Ramallah, now almost all Muslim, which is 6 miles north of Jerusalem,  where an Israeli was injured and taken to Tel  Hashomer Hospital and treated for minor wounds.  Ramallah is in Judea/Samaria.   Near Ramallah is the Ofer prison where a a demonstration outside was taking place.  Rock throwing and tire burning were part of the demonstration.  Several Palestinian Arabs received some slight injuries during this riot.  Evidently the peace talks have stalled as well. Ramallah is where they meet.  The problem is that paramount in importance to Israel is the settlement about borders and Israel's security which Abbas is avoiding.  This peace initiative started in July.  Now the USA has sent Martin Indyk to lead the meetings and he hopes to get more accomplished.  He should be there now to see why security is so important and see how friendly our neighbors are behaving with this uprising called an intifada.

Two Palestinians were caught carrying fire bombs near Bethlehem, which is almost  all Muslim  today.  They also threw rocks and burned tires, causing the IDF to respond with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

In northern Gaza, there was a demonstration of Hamas governed Palestinians who were marching toward the Israeli border fence, meaning to tear it apart, no doubt.  The IDF managed to disperse them.

The actions of the 1st intifada started on December 6, 1987 with the stabbing of an Israeli in Gaza while shopping.  Rioting then was instigated on December 9, 1987 in the Jabalia refugee camp. A 17 year old threw a molotov cocktail at an IDF soldier and he was shot in return.  This brought on the intifada to Gaza, Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria.    It didn't really stop until the 1993 Oslo Accords.  The Madrid Conference of 1991 slowed things down a little.  About 1,000 Palestinians lost their lives during this 6 year demonstration.

A 9 year old girl was shot point blank in the chest on Shabbat by a rifle from  a black masked rioting shooter in Psagot, a Jewish town in Judea/Samaria with a population of 1,623 back in 2008.  No one can be safe in such rioting.  Psagot lies outside Ramallah and seems  cuts off the expansion of the larger city. When Israel won land by the Arab attack in 1967 when resulted in the Arab loss, Israel gave the people of Ramallah Israel identity cards which meant they could travel into Israel and Gaza.  Yet they were the first to rebel in the 1st intifada.

One wonders if this anniversary Intifada was called in reaction to the Muslim Brotherhood being dismantled in Egypt.  They held the same type of doctrine as Hamas.

Abbas had agreed in July to 9 months of discussions about a resolution between Israel and the Arabs' desire to create their own state of Palestine out of part of Israel,  but Hamas threw him out of Gaza and now seems to be trying to take over Abbas's territory.   Even during a peace talk, there is no peace.

Resource:  http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/palestinians-hurl-stones-israelis-mark-intifada-anniversary/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=palestinians-hurl-stones-israelis-mark-intifada-anniversary
Jerusalem Post
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramallah
http://www.jpost.com/Diplomacy-and-Politics/Abbas-US-envoy-Indyk-discuss-Israeli-Palestinian-peace-talks-in-Ramallah-327909
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/intifada.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Intifada
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.550672
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psagot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramallah
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Intifada

Interviews of Hanan Ashrawi on Peace Talks

Nadene Goldfoot                                                                     

                                  Yasser Arafat, PLO Leader and Hanan Ashrawi before 2004
                                                 
CNN aired this morning an  interview with  a representative of Israel's peace negotiations and then Hanan Ashrawi, 67 year old Palestinian spokeswoman, a  legislator and activist.  She is the daughter of one of the founders of the PLO, Daoud Mikhail.  Anytime she has ever been interviewed she manages to talk like a speeding train spouting out her pat list of grievances and opinions of Israelis.  

The Israeli’s concerns were of security.  Hanan was asked about the Palestinian concerns and she mentioned “Jerusalem.”  She said, “Jerusalem.”  She didn’t say East Jerusalem.  Then she went on with her diatribe against Israel, which I finally had to turn off.  It was so full of lies and false accusations that I just couldn’t listen anymore.  I feel for our peace negotiators.

A July 26th interview done by Christine Amanpour with Hanan heard her say, “and we are waiting now for the invitation from Secretary Kerry on the basis of what he is going to receive in terms of Israeli commitments.”

Christine answered that statement with, “That sounds suspiciously like laying down conditions and I think everybody pretty much understands that conditions and preconditions are a non-starter.”  Hanan denied saying this.

One of the other comments made by Hanan was, “Well, first of all, when we talk about the Europeans, settlement activities are illegal.  Annexing and stealing land which is not your own is illegal.  The Europeans have been telling the Israelis to stop doing this repeatedly for years.  This is illegal.  This is counter productive.  This destroys the chances of peace.  And Israel has refused".

What she said was a lot of bashing of Israel and then she talked about the right of return of 4 million Palestinians.

What I'd like to do is give her a lesson in Israeli history, something she has so mixed up.

Resource:  CNN TV aired newscast interview of Hanan Ashrarwi 8/4/13
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanan_Ashrawi
Hanan,
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1307/26/ampr.01.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/ashrawi.html

Differences in Ideology Keep Arabs Away From Peace Negotiations

Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                                            Map of Islamic World with Israel in Red.
                                                      See if you can find Israel.
On May 14, 1948, Israel became a state among the nations.  The Arabs of the area were also offered a state of their own and have resisted acceptance of such, though they cry out that they want their own state as well.  The problem is that the state they want is part of the small acreage that makes up Israel.

Here's a difference in ideology.  Israel's population is made up of 6 million Jews and 1.7 million Arabs and others.  It was created as the one Jewish state in the world on 8,000 sq miles and is to be the haven for Jews who have suffered from anti-Semitism for 2,000 years or more, depending on what attack we are starting from.  There are only 14 million Jews left in the world.  We make up only 0.02% of the world population.

 There are already 48 Muslim majority states, possibly even more so depending on the material one is using.  Wikipedia as of 2011 said this.    Islam is the 2nd largest religious group in the world.  There are 1.62 billion Muslims in the world making up 23% of the world population.  They already claim 5,120,000 sq. miles of land.

There is no comparison here.  One is on the verge of extinction and the other's numbers are bulging, both in land and in population.

The Arab Palestinians will not come to terms with the Israelis.  They are bickering over the issue of established Jewish villages, town and cities they refer to as "settlements,"  a very poor choice of a noun describing this population.  That's because they lie in the A or B section of Judea-Samaria, the Jewish land the Jordans have labeled as the West Bank that they want for their state.  This is because of the 1967 War when Arabs attacked the Jews of Israel and the Jews won, which meant that they inherited legally land which was originally to be theirs in the first place by the law of 1920 through the League of Nations.  It's funny how this worked out.  The Arab greed for Israel meant that they lost what they had to Israel. I'd swear that Ha-Shem (G-d) stepped in and ran  interferrence for Israel.

At the same time, the Arabs keep on announcing that their state is to be all 100% Muslim and there are to be no Jews allowed.  Thus there is the matter of boundaries, and allowing the Jews in section C to be a part of Israel rather than to be displaced.

The Arabs are not bending over backwards in displaying any neighborly tendancies.  Instead, their texbooks for schools do not show Israel on their maps in Geography lessons.  Instead, Palestine is written as the name.  Is this a Freudian slip?  No, this is their true intention.  Their pre-schoolers are taught to admire suicide bombers.  These are their heroes instead of Superman.  What a philosophy this is!

Moshe Ya'alon is the Israeli Defense Minister.  He spoke on Monday  to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, a group made up not only of Jews but Arabs as well who are in the Knesset.  His topic was "Prospects for Peace with Palestinians."  He told them that we are ready to begin immediately without preconditions and discuss all the issues.  Israel's aim is not to rule the Palestinians.  Israel wants to advance the diplomatic process but Abbas is avoiding this by setting preconditions.  Israel is not about to pay any more futile prices just to get them to come to the table.

Resource: http://www.dailyalert.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_by_country
lookisrael.com/files/jewishnmuslims.php-problem in retreiving.  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world

Does Abbas Use Israel's Innovations?

Nadene Goldfoot
The video below tells it all.  Israel is extremely innovative and has come up with all sorts of inventions that have helped the world, many of which are in the medical world as well as technologies that we have come to love and expect.

I am in awe of this teeny little state who is surrounded at least on 3 sides by enemies that have been trying to destroy them, from the Palestinians on the West side to Iran way in the East as well as Lebanon and Syria in the North.  Iran threatens with atomic bombs and Syria has chemical weapons. For the past 6 years they have also been continually bombed by the Palestinian Arab terrorists from Gaza as well, so the Southern Israeli population spends a lot of time in bomb shelters.  Besides the immediate dangers, there is also the UN who has managed to single out Israel as the one and only terrible country in the world, causing many to side with them.

To top it off, there are people who want to boycott, divest and sanction Israel's products in  destructive BDS movements.   They just want to punish Israel for trying to stay alive.  This is a situation for only the best of psychologists or sociologists to understand.  Anybody else would crumble under the stress Israelis live under, but for them they just keep inventing.

BDSers see everything Israel does as a crime, and in my opinion, twist facts as only the UN bias views things.  To these misinformed, hateful, judgemental  people, Israel has "denied Palestinians their fundamental rights of freedom, equality, and self-determination through ethnic cleansing, colonization, racial discrimination, and military occupation."

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, chief  of the Palestinian political group, Fatah and main negotiator has been refusing to sit down and talk to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for a long time, now.  Hillary Clinton only pressures  Netanyahu to do this but never Abbas, so Netanyahu just offered to release 124 Palestinian terrorist murderers from Israeli prisons in exchange for a meeting with Abbas. Of course, as usual, Abbas refused.  Did he want more of an offer?  Actually, he wants a settlement before he sits down to settle anything.  It's "give in to his wishes" and then he'll sit down, and that's the way it has been going on.  Netanyahu thinks that this is why people sit down and talk,  to decide on things together; some give and take on both sides of an issue.

This only brought on an attack against Israel by the Obama administration.  They are also angry now because Israel's Supreme Court, led by retired Supreme Court justice Edmond Levy, came out with the decree that their communities that go beyond the 1949 armistice lines are legal!  The findings were published this week and say that under international law, they are legal.  This is not new as it has been the position of Israel since 1967 and even since 1922.  Israel has held the right to sovereignty over Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as well as all the land Israel took control over during the 1948-1949 War of Independence.

In the mandate that Britain held up till May 14, 1948, Britain was to facilitate settlement by Jews on the land, including state lands and wastelands not required for public purposes.  They were not to prohibit Jewish settlement and they did so  in every way possible.  They went against the requirement that they were to help Jewish settlement.   They took horrible action to prevent Jewish settlement, such as not letting Jews in the land in the late 30's who were escaping the Nazi persecution, even to the point of turning back shiploads of Jews needing their promised homeland, thereby causing their ultimate deaths. Then they went ahead and opened the land up to the Arabs, instead.

Israel is bucking a lot of negative pre-determined viewpoints about their state that say that their land, once said to be a nice piece, like a 9 X 12" sheetcake, shouldn't be any bigger than a postage stamp, and having shrunk to that size, should now give up more land called Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem.  Actually, Jordan (Transjordan) was to be a part of Israel originally.  And I ask, just who has been the people who have been denied their fundamental rights of freedom?  Who has been racially or religiously discriminated against?  Who's still the scapegoat in this world?

Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIoSesQB2U
http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro
http://jewishfactsfromportland.blogspot.com  (my latest posts on Britain, the mandate and events)
From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/caroline-glick/obamas-spectacular-failure/

Stalemate Ending of Peace Talks While Gaza Exchanges Fire With Israel

Nadene Goldfoot
Supposedly, though  PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad was to meet with President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu on the 17th , he did not attend.  Abbas had announced that he would, and seemed to be surprised that he didn't show up.

As it turned out, he wouldn't meet with Netanyahu.  Saeb Erekat, head of the PA negotiating team had told journalists just a few hours before the supposed meeting that he would be there, too.  Erkat had to stand in for Fayyad and was joined by Majed Faraj, PA general intelligence chief.

Netanyahu had his special envoy, Isaac Molho with him and the men talked for one hour 20 minutes.  The time was followed by a joint statement saying they both were committed to achieving peace.  Molho is to meet Abbas in Ramallah in the next 2 weeks and will bring an answer to a letter from the Palestinians about Israel's position on the borders of a future Palestinian state and security arrangements for Israel as part of any peace agreement.  It will no doubt include Israel's expectation that Palestinians recognize the State of Israel.

In the meantime, just 3 hours ago, the IDF and PA terrorists fired at each other on the Gaza border.  One was wounded.  The terrorists fired at the soldiers while they were near the security fence in central Gaza doing routine operational activities of clearing land in the early afternoon along the border.  .

The shooting damaged two armoured cars, so the Israelis answered back.  Israel's military keeps an exclusion zone inside the Gaza Strip along the border and regularly does this chore so that the land is safer and terrorists cannot hide in clumps.

On Tuesday evening, a rocket fired from Gaza and landed in Ashkelon.  This is what they had hoped to prevent.  Things like this that keep on happening.

Resource: http://news.yahoo.com/gaza-militant-killed-israeli-border-firefight-193154283.html

haaretz.com/misc/.../palestinian-delegation-delivers-peace-talks-demands-to-netanyahu-1.424905?trai

Hamas Will Not Yield to Peace Overtures

Nadene Goldfoot
The Prime Minister of Hamas in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, an anti Israeli terrorist group,  will never seek peace with Israel.  They will not give up its arms, territory or claims on Jerusalem.  They speak for all Palestinians.  He said this from  the capital of Tunisia "Tunisian Republic",  Tunis.  Tunisia is a small state next door to Libya and Algeria in north Africa.  Is the UN paying attention? 

Haniyeh predicted difficult days for Israel, meaning that they are going to attack more, as I see it.  Israel is being pressured by the UN to sit down and talk peace with the PA.  That is difficult being that Fatah and Hamas have united and speak as one today.

The ironic situation is that Hamas are the instigators, attacking Israel first with mortars, missiles and rockets, but when Israel reacts by attacking the attackers in an air strike, she is the  one called on the carpet.  I haven't read once where the UN ever tells Hamas to cut it out.  Israel does its darnest to hit only the aggressors doing the shooting while Hamas just fires into civilian territory hoping to kill anyone, women, children, men, it doesn't matter. 

Pervez Musharraf, former President of Pakistan, has said that he would like to help out at the peace talks.  He himself is planning on entering Pakistan between January 27th and 30th and may be arrested on charges of allegations that he didn't provide enough security when former Prime Minister Benzzir Bhutto was assassinated. 

It's high time that the UN, with Musharraf or another rational mediator, realize who is at fault in not making peace.  Israel of course wants peace.  Who likes to be the country that another takes pot shots at all the time and wants to destroy her?  Israel was created to bring peace to Jews who needed a refuge in this world.  The refuge has become an open range game preserve for mad hunters. This is like being the target of a Russian Roulette game.   Are we living in 2012 or the Middle Ages?

 It's impossible to make peace with a people who only seek its destruction.  The Palestinians are in need of therapy first!  We can give away all of Israel except for 10 km and they'd bomb that to get rid of Jews.  It's time the UN sees the situation clearly.  There are 21 Arab nations and 1 Jewish one.  The Arabs are stuck in a time warp of hatred.  It's time to get a new slant on life and join the world in peace. 

Like Golda Meir once said, "The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight." I say, when are the Palestinians going to want to see their children live to an old age in a peaceful environment instead of becoming fodder in a stupid war of hatred of Jews? 


Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/goldameir137228.html#ixzz1izUXTe75
Resource: Oregonian newspaper 1/9/12 page A3, Developments in the Middle East
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisia
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/287090/us-and-biblical-israel-barbara-lerner

Thursday: Pressure from Robert Gates on Israel and Missiles and Mortars

Nadene Goldfoot
On Thursday, when Israel was attacked by 10 missiles and mortars, Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert Gates was attending a meeting in Tel Aviv at the Defense Ministry urging Israel to work harder to achieve peace with the Palestinians to bring about a two state solution.  He hadn't visited Israel since April 2007.  He only attained this position in 2006.  Sec. Gates received his doctorate in Russian and Soviet History.  Prior to this position he was with the CIA for many years. 

Nobody has worked harder or cared more about peace than Israel, but they're not about to pick up and leave, and that's what the Palestinians seem to really be after, not peace.  I wonder if Gates has bothered to talk to the Palestinians in the same manner.  Have the Palestinians been told to get back to the peace table that they walked away from?  What is Netanyahu supposed to do?  Have Mossad kidnap Abbas and bring him back?

What several of us fear is that Obama and his group will attack Israel next on the pretense of defending Palestinians when Israel reacts to all their shelling, which she will have to do. This is especially possible after seeing what is happening in Libyia, which is not that far away on the west side of Egypt.     USA, England and France never seem to care that Israel is being attacked constantly and that their citizens suffer from shelling, even though Gates said that no country would stand for that.  This is a true statement but why did he say it?  Is he goading Israel into a reaction or is he just being sympathetic and understanding?  I really wonder being he is the one pressuring Netanyahu  to make the peace and not Abbas. 

Actions speak louder than words.  Obama said we would not have men on Libya's land yet today we just learned that we have had men there scouting out places to bomb.  It's all for humanitarian purposes, saving innocent lives that the countries have taken over the air space keeping the government of Libya out of it, but this could become a general pretext for going into certain countries and not others.  Obama said we're not going after Gadaffi yet his son may have been killed already and Gadaffi's building has been targeted.  We've heard a lot of promises in the last few years but the results have been something else.  Promises have not been fullfilled.  Case in point that I cite is the talk he and Hillary gave to AIPAC. 

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=213706
http://www.defense.gov/bios/biographydetail.aspx?biographyid=115

Flies in the Ointment for Peace Between Palestinians & Israelis

Nadene Goldfoot

The biggest fly of all is that the Palestinian authority refuses to accept Israel as a state for Jews. We cannot have but one state in the world while they have 48 Muslim majority countries. A Palestine would be the 49th. Though there are almost the same number of Jews in the USA as in Israel, Jews in the USA make up only 2.2% of the population.

One of the points to discuss is the return of Palestinians from 1948. They and their descendents have now grown to 5 million, a number that is absolutely imposssible to accept. At one point our prime minister had said we could take in 100,000, that that was not accepted. With their practice of plural marriages in which a man may have 4 wives, they have produced children four or more times faster than any other group in the world.

First off, the Palestinians refused the offer in 1948 for their half of Palestine from the British. They been refusing such offers ever since. As recently as 2008, Israel's PM Ehud Olmert offered to end the "occupation" and to give Palestinians 94% of Judea and Samaria and the other 6% from land in a land swap and PLO leadership said "NO." That was a great deal. This shows how badly the PLO does not really want or need a state. They have other goals in mind. I breathed a sigh of relief on this. I feel that since all the Arab states attacked Israel in 67 and lost, Judea and Samaria can stay under Israel's occupation since that was a part of our Jewish land long ago. This is the land of our beginnings, of our history. At any rate, even with the act of giving it away to the Palestinians, it wasn't accepted, so that proves they really don't want it or the responsibility. As the auctioneer calls out, "Going, going, GONE!"

In 2010 Abbas refused to negotiate with Netanyahu unless Israel accepted his preconditions for negotiating which would mean giving into the items that are to be discussed. This is so ridiculous it's pathetic. This means that Abbas is not about to discuss anything as a "mentch". And he hasn't, even with pressure from the USA and possibly even a little from the UN.

Now the war has also become a war with words. Palestinians are out to erase any mention of Jews in Israel, Samaria or Judea. They have published items saying that there is no connection to Jews from the Western or Wailing Wall which is Judaism's holiest site. This is where all Jews head for in Jerusalem and say special prayers. This wall was built in 20 BCE by Herod and it took 11 years to build. It was circling the 2nd Temple and also supported it. This has become an open air synagogue where tens of thousands of Jewish celebrants come to worship. It's where Bar Mitzva's are celebrated. Now the Muslims are claiming that the only reverence to be observed is that their Prophet Muhammad tethered his winged horse, Buraq on his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem in the 7th century AD. Islam was born with Mohammad in the middle 600's AD. It's the last of the three major religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Palestinians continue to teach hatred for Jews in their schools and on their TV programs, especially the ones for children. This doesn't show any chance to have a peaceful affair with Palestinians, ever. They're trying to push Israel back "today" to the 1967 borders. "Tomorrow", as they said in 1948, they most likely will be pushing Israel into the sea if they can get away with it.

Palestinians paint with lying words of information calling Israel criminals and get away with it with the biased international "human rights" of the United Nations. However, Israel was just cleared in the flotilla mission of Turkey, much to Turkey's disappointment, no doubt. Israel is being called criminals because they won't lay down and die. They do outlandish things like protect their citizens and they fight terrorism acts. Israelis intend to live and keep their religion alive with them.

Why haven't Palestinians ever accepted the multiple offers of having their own state? It's thought that they may be trying to force Israel into accepting them all into one large single state. That would wipe out the Jewish reason for creation and Israel would become another Muslim state in short time, losing even its name.

Israel is being shelled by rockets, mortars and missles from Gaza on the Southwest. They have at different times, and are in danger today from Lebanon, now taken over by Hizbollah so that's from the North. On the East is Judea and Samaria, under constant pressure from their brothers in Gaza to let loose and attack, which they have on occasion. When will the Palestinians realize that they all are threatened by Iran if they become capable of atomic attacks against Israel. If Israel is hit, they all will die; Gazans, Palestinaians in Judea and Samaria, and yes, even the one million Arab citizens in Israel. So it's not just Jews that can be eliminated. It's time they all decide to turn their weapons into plowshares and do some planting of food and goodness instead of giving everyone a bellyache of hatred. Palestinians could learn and benefit from Israeli Jews. Their lives could be much happier.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/israel/jerusalem-western-wall

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alan-dershowitz/the-palestinian-leadershi_b_794519.html from Professor Alan Dershowitz, author of "The trials of Zion" and many others.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/usjewpop.html

Ganging up on Israel

Nadene Goldfoot

Europe, Russians and Palestinians are ganging up on Israel and the USA. Saeb Erekat, Phd, an important Palestinian negotiator who lectures at An Najah U. in Nablus in Political Science, is pushing Israel to accept 7 million Palestinians in the "Right of Return" deal of Arabs who fled the area in 1948 when 7 Arab armies attacked Israel when it first declared itself a state. The fact that the number has gone from around 600,000 to 7 million does not deter him. Nor does the fact that they were not forced to leave by the Israelis but told to do so by their Arab leaders. Nor does he ever bring up the fact that a like number of Jews were forced out of the Arab countries and had to flee to Israel minus all their possessions. This is part of history that the Arabs want to forget about.

This admirer of Arafat has credentials in "Peace." How can he think that what he is demanding is a peaceful action? I guess it depends on what side of the fence you sit on as to how you view the world, no matter what you have studied in college. It's all how to use your learning to suit your personal needs.

Not only do they want to flood the country with Arabs, but they want all of Jerusalem for themselves. One can see why Netanyahu expects to have a pow wow with Abbas, even though Abbas is threatening to go to the UN to declare Palestine a state. Perhaps this is why Abbas is not bothering to come to the table. What he is demanding is out of line and he knows it. I think he is even embarrassed to demand in person such things. It's like the Middle Eastern way of shopping. One asks for a very high price and then both negotiate down to an amount that both can live with. I see Abbas starting at a ridiculous price that cannot even be considered.

http://www.debka.com/article/20451/

http://www.nad-plo.org/main.php?view=nav_about-us2
http://www.palestinehistory.com/biography/palestine/palbio47.htm

Daily Mortar Attacks from Gaza

Nadene Goldfoot

You never see this news in an American newspaper like the Oregonian, but mortar attacks have been going on daily all year from Gaza. Today a home was hit on a kibbutz. It's like living in the firing zone of someone playing Russian Roulette. You never know when or where somebody or something can be hit. It's something that you don't get used to, either. It just tightens up your nerves.

December 2, 2010 3 mortars and 1 Qassam rocket landed, then another rocket hit dairy and injured cows near Ashkelon, Portland's sister city.

December 3, 2020 7 mortar shells hit Israel

December 6, 2010: Qassam rocket landed near Ashkelon, Portland's sister city

December 7, 2010 2 mortars landed in the Eshkol region of southern Israel.

December 8, 2010 1 mortar landed in the Sha'ar Hanegia region of southern Israel.

All this has been going on all year and the US has at the same time been pressuring Israel to freeze building in Judea and Samaria, though they already had done so in the 10 month period before and no peace discussions came about. How can my country pressure Israel about peace, which is what Israel wants, when half the Palestinians are making constant war on Israel? Why doesn't our government pressure Hamas to cut out their shooting at Israel in the first place? How can there possibly be peace talks when Israel is being constantly attacked by a party that had even attacked Fatah? Gaza being occupied by Israel ended in 2005. Israel had to create a blockade in 2007 when Hamas terrorists threw out Fatah and took over Gaza.

The PA have had the chutzpa to demand that Israel stop building before they would even talk about peace making-and then they can only speak for their own Fatah group.

8:28pm 12/8/10 Israel just completed air strikes on Gaza after mortar shell fragments from a fired mortal shell wounded a man on an agriculture site near the border was hit. Israel bombed two training sites. The Israeli was taken to a hospital in Bersheba.

This was the first casualty since March when a worker from Thailand was killed by mortar shelling.

Reference: http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=198584

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Palestinian_rocket_attacks_on_Israel,_2010

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/iaf-hits-gaza-targets-after-slew-of-rockets-strike-israel-1.325803

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101209/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel_gaza

Sixty-Two Years of Waiting is Enough-Diy-ay-Nu

by Nadene Goldfoot

Palestinians are still harping on settlement stoppage of building in the Judea-Samaria (West Bank) area by Israelis. Netanyahu had given into the Palestinians a 10 month freeze in the name of peace, but their recognition of Israel didn't happen. Israel has been hoping for recognition for the past 62 years. Peace talks will not be indulged in by the Palestinians because of this. They're demanding another freeze, for forever, no doubt.

The Palestinians have been trying very hard to get Israel to weaken their safeguards. Israel has to continue watching what is coming and going into Gaza and keep restrictions there because of continuing rocket firing and a lack of a peace treaty. It's actually enemy territory.

When Israel was created in 1948, all the surrounding Arab countries attacked it, meaning to drive it into the sea. In other words, they tried to kill the baby just created. They have continued with these attacks even after 1985, and continued attacks coming from the Palestinians themselves to this day. I remember that after leaving Israel in 1985, it was under attack and everyone was given gas masks with directions on how to tape up a small area in their homes as a safe room from chemical warfare. I received e-mails from my neighbor in Safed about what went on. Places I was familiar with were hit by rockets. It was unreal.

We have two peace treaties only: Egypt and Jordan. We see Iran feeding the Palestinian terrorists with weapons through Syria. Lebanon is a huge threat. Israel has to be constantly on guard. If it lets down in any way, as it did in leaving Gaza in the name of peace, it will be attacked.

I know that many think that this is a continuing condition and there is no hope for peace. Warring is going to be the norm. I feel that if the world continues to back terrorism as it is doing right now, it will be. If the world wakes up and sees that Israel is the scapegoat and that the Arab world is acting like bullies, it could bring about pressure to cause terrorism to end. People in this part of the world have the ability to live in peace if they see that it is more advantageous to live a peaceful life.

Right now Ireland is forming another flotilla to enter Gaza. Is this helpful? What in the world are they backing? What are they against? This is an example of how warped the world has become in understanding what is right and what is wrong. It makes me shudder.

From what I've read from the Socialist party's diatribes against Israel, they think that Jews stole Arab land and so they plot against Israel. When are people going to understand and accept facts that we didn't and that we re-created Israel in the most legitimate ways; legally, rightfully, and that there were very few Arabs living in the area at the time of its birth. Jews never wanted to displace them and never did. It's quite a history, but who is actually finding out about it? From what I can see, people today get their information from word of mouth from Palestinians only.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100830/wl_afp/israelpalestinianspeacesettler
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100830/wl_nm/us_ireland_israel_flotilla

http://palwatch.org/ Itamar Marcus articles from Palestinian Media Watch

Peace Talks to Commense between Israel and Palestinians

REALLY?

by Nadene Goldfoot

On August 11th the Oregonian had an article about Israel and Palestinians Peace Talks by Matthew Lee in Washington and Fisnik Abrashi of Sofia, Bulgaria. It was telling how the peace talks were not going to happen. I noted that some adjectives were used that surprised me, such as the "hawkish" Netanyahu when mentioning his name, and the "ceremonial" president Shimon Peres. Such adjectives were not used on other people. Are we just more colorful and need more adjectives to describe us?

Today's article in the Oregonian by Paul Richter out of Washington's McClatchy-Tribune was more factual and longer. The headline, "Israelis, Palestinians expected to resume direct peace talks", did surprise me in that it did not explain the turn around. We know that the Palestinians want pre-conditions and Israel does not. Netanyahu feels that that is what talks are about, to discuss issues, and then after discussion to decide and come to agreements or not. Netanyahu is anxious to start the talks and said to "get on with it." I only get out of this article that Obama is happy the peace talks are resuming. It says that if the talks get stuck, Obama will put forward his own proposals and USA will not be passive bystanders. To me that implies pressure. It's nice to try to bring about peace but I'm not looking forward to anyone pressuring Netanyahu into an intolerable position, and that's the way it is looking to me.

http://www.oregonlive.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/base/international-35/1281546070106950.xml&storylist=international
8/16/2010 Oregonian page a9, Israelis, Palestinians expected to resume direct peace talks.

Divided Arabs Difficult to Partner With

Fatah is the "former" terrorist group that was under Arafat. They have moved out of Gaza and into the Judea Samaria section. Do they recognize Israel's right to exist? That's hard to say. They have agreed to #242 and #338 which means they renounce terrorism, but it has happened from some of their people. They call Israel's right to exist just ideology. According to international law as they see it, that concept isn't in the legal bounds. The question asked is is it a legal right or moral right to have come into existence or to remain in existence? They finally accepted the fact that Israel came into existence legally on Nov 15, 1988 when they declared a Declaration of Independence. This declaration provides for two states, one Arab and one Jewish. They have refused to say that Israel had a moral right to come into being because this would affirm the Zionist movement. This was viewed by the international community as the case, but no Palestinians in the world believed it then, and their leaders saw to that by promoting attacks to drive Israel into the sea.





Unfortunately, Fatah is only about half of Palestinians. We have the Hamas and other terrorists in Gaza who refuse to recognize us or not stop attacking. They themselves are a divided people. So making peace with Fatah is just one part of a predicament. It's hardly a deal. Why doesn't the Arab League pressure them to go along with Abbas? Will this ever happen? Without this piece, there is no peace for Israel. They are continuing their attacks.






Just around the bend lie more Arab countries. Now Syria and Libya are pressuring the Palestinians to not talk with Israel about peace but to resume armed fighting. The Palestinians in Gaza are following this order and just fired two rockets and clashes in Khan Yunis in southern Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and one is fighting for his life.





At the same time the Arab League says it is backing the land for peace initiative with Israel. Here we go, being expected to give up more land, and this now is land from East Jerusalem for peace. Palestinians want this piece to be their capital of their future state. They want all this before they even sit down to talk, which is not in the cards right now.





Abbas's aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh dismissed the pressure from Gadhafi of Libya and Abbas of Syria. Yet he said that if Syria and Libya declare war on Israel the Palestinians would follow. So what will happen with such neighbors sitting virtually in Israel's laps if they take part of Jerusalem is that the enemy would be that much closer. There is no possibility of neighborliness.





Abbas has already stated that there will be no peace deal with Israel until we move out of east Jerusalem. We also live there, but they want this to be Judenrein, free of Jews. It doesn't matter to them or the world that we have over one million Arabs living in Israel as citizens. I can see why Netanyahu told Obama right off that we would continue to build on our own land.





I lived in Binyon 13, or building 13 in Safed and had Arabs living in our building. This won't happen in the future Palestine. Yet Obama has pressured Netanyahu to go along with this nightmare of a demand of stopping all building on what is our very own land full of Jews.





We moved lock, stock and barrel out of Gaza which only brought us the nightmare of eight years of hellish rockets raining on southern Israel. Before that we moved Israelis in the act of land for peace which got us nothing. We move and Palestinians attack us in better and closer positions. This expectation of Obama would earn him more cudos with the Arabs and points with Americans, but wouldn't get us anything but destruction. I think we're too smart for this. It's time the Palestinians did something that would benefit us. Give us guarantees up the gazoozoo by recognition and promise of peace with a time period to show they mean it. The biggest thing we need is a non-violent neighbor to give us peace.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100328/ap_on_re_af/af_libya_arab_summit/print
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/International/2010/03/27/Israelis-Palestinians-clash-in-Gaza/UPI-88371269712846/
http://israelipalestinian.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=000393

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/788interview-why-hamas-and-fatah-fight