Obama, Abbas tout two-state solution

Source: UPI

WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama expressed optimism Thursday that Israel would realize a two-state solution with Palestine is in its best interests in the long term.

Speaking to reporters with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after their meeting, Obama said he would "assume the best" about Israel's position on the two-state solution, especially since his discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "only took place last week."

Obama praised Abbas for his work toward a unity government, saying he was impressed with the Palestinian leader's insistence that the government follow principles proffered by the Middle East Quartet -- the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations -- involved in mediating the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Obama declined to specify a time frame for a Palestinian state, saying he didn't want to set an "artificial timetable."

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/05/28/Obama-Abbas-tout-two-state-solution/UPI-52391243512724/

Tel Aviv should do more about stopping settlement construction. Their progress on the issue as been abysmal at best.

Source: Reuters

President Barack Obama on Thursday ratcheted up pressure on Israel to freeze settlements as he sought to reassure visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of U.S. support for Palestinian statehood.

Hoping to revive stalled peace efforts, Obama held White House talks with Abbas 10 days after hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who remains at odds with Israel's superpower ally over Jewish settlements and Palestinian statehood.

Obama made clear that he would continue to push Netanyahu, who has dismayed Washington and the Palestinians with his resistance to calls for a total freeze on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.

"I'm a strong believer in a two-state solution," Obama told reporters with Abbas, a Western-backed moderate weakened by Hamas Islamist control of the Gaza Strip, seated at his side.

Read more: http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5613352/obama-meets-abbas-and-presses-israel-on-settlements/

This is how i see the situation in Israel-Palestine:

Israel:
* Won Gaza, Sinai & West bank in the 1967 war. Won these territories on defensive strategy (they weren't the aggressors). According to UN rules, they can keep these territories.
* Has given away control of Gaza Strip & West Bank
* Is open to having Palestine declared as a nation, if it recognizes the sovereignty of Israel
* Removed settlers from all Gaza & West bank settlements; has taken over East Jerusalem.

To Do:
* Stop settlements

Palestine:
* No action on infrastructure. I don't know what happens to the hundreds of millions of aid that Palestine receives

To Do:
* Agree that they will recognize Israel as a legitimate state. Amalgamate West bank & Gaza into a country for it's citizens or get themselves attached to either Jordan or Egypt.

Remaining Conflict: Control of Jerusalem. That can be addressed as the next step.

As i see the current situation, while i don't agree to new settlements, i understand why Israel is doing it. Settlement construction is the only ace that Israel holds now to get Palestine to accept Israel as a nation. If they stop settlements, what else can they use as bargaining chips with the Palestine authorities? What else is left? They have already ceded a lot of land that will make Palestine nation.

I don't understand the delay and the "timelines". The time for action on this conflict is now and i don't see any of the parties accepting the realities of today ...

and the means to deliver them along with the best war machine USAmerikan money can buy...

Can't "keep them safe".

Nothing good will happen until a USAmerican President tells the Israelis, "we're going to cut your fucking money until you get your illegal squatters off of Palestine and negotiate a real peace."

'Till then the right-wing Zionist govt. of Israel will stonewall and stonewall and stonewall until all of the West Bank is filled by fanatic "settlers".

Your first point is incorrect:

On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a pre-emptive attack against Egypt's airforce. Jordan, which had signed a mutual defence treaty with Egypt on May 30, then attacked western Jerusalem and Netanya....

That's why it's an ILLEGAL OCCUPATION and the "settlers" are illegally occupying Palestine -- according to International Law.

Israel = bush...

my mistake to call it defensive action. i was thinking of Yom Kippur when i wrote it.

i will make 2 points:

1. Because of the lack of trust amongst the 2 parties, the 2 sides will be reluctant to take unilateral decision. That's the sad truth. I don't see Israel acting in good faith and Palestine following with a good faith action (in fact, the last time, any nation took a good faith action - India in 1998 with pakistan, was rewarded with the Kargil War!)

2. Territory dispute - In fact, i should apologize on this one. I went with a very old article sent by one of my right-wing friend. Before responding to you, i read UN Resolution 242 and was surprised that some of my earlier assumptions were incorrect. However, the UN declaration clearly excluded asking Israel to withdraw from ALL territories. The UN wanted the 2 parties to settle the territory dispute and that's where we are struck. Israel believes it has established a precedent when it negotiated with Egypt & returned Sinai AFTER Egypt recognized Israel's sovereignty. I think Palestine should do the same. Not saying that Israel is right or wrong, but that method will work ...

for themselves -- both sides.

I also read you as saying that the U.S. is the big dog in this hunt and is really the only element in the conflict that has the power to end it -- by withholding the money that keeps Israel going.

In the grand scheme, the terrorist Zionists' activities coupled with the collapse of the British Empire and the collusion of the permanent war foreign policy of the United States after WWII allowed the Zionists to take over a major section of Palestine, declare themselves a state and expel by force the majority of Palestinian Arabs who were living in the new state of Israel.

Good ole' geopolitics during the peak of the age of Oil...

as long as the illegal Israeli "settlements" are allowed to remain in the West Bank.

They command 1/2 of the land, the best land, and steal 4/5 of the water of Palestine.

That was their plan all along. To create the fait accompli of Israeli domination of the West Bank pushing the remaining Palestinian people out of Palestine or, at a minimum, perpetuating the current status-quo; a set of occupied Bantustans under the thumb of the IDF.

Have you ever seen a map of these "settlements" in the West Bank? Check it out...as of 2002...



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Here's another (2007) with the Apartheid wall...
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