Obama at Haaretz Conference: Israel Must Bring Those Who Attack Palestinians to Justice

Over and over again, my speech I wrote two years ago is similar to Obamas' speech. He is the 3rd US president who genuinely cares about the people, justice and security for all people.

Mike Ghouse


U.S. president tells HaaretzQ: with NIF conference that bonds between U.S. and Israel, commitment to Israel's security, are unbreakable.

Barak Ravid (New York) Dec 13, 2015 5:00 PM
  
U.S. President Barack Obama's address to the HaaretzQ with NIF conference in New York, December 13, 2015. White House

Video at: http://www.haaretz.com/haaretzq/1.691529

HaaretzQ Live: Joint Arab List leader Ayman Odeh: We must liberate Palestinians and Israelis from occupation

HaaretzQ with NIF Program
In a video address to the HaaretzQ: with NIF conference in New York, U.S. President Barack Obama said that peace is the only way that Israel can remain a Jewish and democratic state. Obama condemned the recent spate of terrorist attacks against Israelis, and urged the Israeli government to bring to justice anyone who commits acts of violence against Palestinians.

Obama's address opened the first ever Haaretz conference in the United States, which was organized in conjunction with the New Israel Fund. Immediately after Obama's speech, President Reuven Rivlin addressed the conference. Also expected to address the conference was Robert Malley, Obama's senior adviser on the counterinsurgency campaign against ISIS.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, is due to deliver one of the keynote speeches at the conference. Other speakers include PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, former foreign and justice minister MK Tzipi Livni and Joint List chairman MK Ayman Odeh.


In his speech, Obama highlighted the special relationship between Israel and the United States and his administration's commitment to Israel's security, saying that both are unshakable. He added that security and military cooperation with Israel are currently at an unprecedented level.

"We are at a critical moment," Obama said. "Inexcusable violence has taken to many lives – Israelis, Palestinian and Americans. I have been clear that the Palestinian leaders have to condemn the ongoing attacks [against Israelis] and stop incitement. Individuals responsible for violence including violence against Palestinian must be brought to justice."

Obama added that the United States "call[s] on both sides to work to defuse tensions exercise restraint and prevent more loss of life and restore calm."

"The best way to reduce tensions and ensure Israel's security is to continue working in concrete ways towards a two-state solution," he added.

"At times like these it is important to reaffirm what we know is true so I will say it again – peace is necessary, peace is just and peace is possible. Peace is necessary because it is the only way to ensure true and lasting security for Israelis and Palestinians and the only way to ensure that Israel remains a democratic and Jewish state."

Obama went on to say that, "Peace is just because the two-state solution will finally bring Israelis the normalcy to which they are entitled and Palestinians the sovereign state and dignity they deserve. And peace is possible if leaders and people are willing to summon the will and courage to break free from the patterns of the past and forge a new future."

Barak Ravid
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/haaretzq/1.691529

Netanyahu is bad for Israel, Obama is following a sound US-IRAN policy

Lessons in Foreign policy: Mr. Netanyahu and his ilk can fool us in America once, but not twice, and we are not the guinea pigs of his erratic genocidal behavior.

Netanyahu is bad for Israel's long term security

He is coming to Washington to convince the nincompoops who had plunged us into destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to go at Iran now. We lost over 5000 men and women, millions of Americans lost their jobs, and their homes were foreclosed besides sinking us into budget deficit running in $Trillions of Dollars. He wants us to be completely liquidated, to hell with him. We put America first!

Article at Arab News:  http://thearabdailynews.com/2015/02/26/back-off-netanyahu-dont-mess-america/

Mike Ghouse committed to build cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. www.MikeGhouse.net 

Reuven Rivlin: The land is not divisible Israel Palestine together

link: http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2015/03/reuven-rivlin-land-is-not-divisible.html

I salute this man Reuven Rivlin; a man of genuine wisdom.

Where was he? God must have beamed him down to take care of this conflict. This is unusual for me to use these words,  but am tempted to say God has chosen him to lead Israel out of chaotic rulers to bring security to the Jewish people. I have read through the following article a few times and I am in tune with his wisdom.  I pray  for the long term security of Jews and Justice to the Palestinians.

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin

This is one of the most exciting news I have read in a long time. Darn, I am tense with joy. I see hope for the people of Israel and Palestine.

This man Reuven Rivlin may have found the solutions to the Israel Palestine conflict. Some of the ideas he has talked about are the similar to the ones talked about at the Israel Palestine Confederation.  If Palestinians can get Justice and Israel can have lasting security, this is the best thing.

This will liberate the moderate majority of Jews who were pained with this conflict, and had severely compromised on justice for the security. The world would sigh relief, 96% of the community of nations wanted Israel to abide by the UN resolutions, which were violated regularly.  I hope this development when gains ground,  anti-Israelism (for slapping in the face of 161 of out 167 Nations' decisions) which is wrongly labeled as Anti-Semitism will decline.

The New generation of American and European Jews will find a new Israel they can connect with - and be in tune with the Justice and liberty for all. The Israelis and Palestinians will realize what a normal life is, and I hope the next generation will be raised as normal people and not hateful revengeful abnormal men and women on both sides. Please remember the majority of the people are moderates and want peace and get along.

It's crime on part of the humanity that we have robbed the Jewish people of their a sense of home for as long as their history. May be that is the driving reason for them to hang on to Israel so dearly. Now Palestinians are in the same boat and the entire world bears the responsibility for what we have done or not done for them. It's time we take apprehensions out for these two people and the words of Reuven Rivlin seems to address those concerns.

With the change of leadership in Israel, these can be achieved and strengthened by the Saudi offer to recognize Israel and be the good neighbors, with that most of the conflicts that emanated will die down, indeed, Iran's problem with Israel will disappear, they are fighting for Justice for the Palestinians.

I hope Reuven Rivlin convinces AIPAC to join him for the sake of long term stable Israel without compromising the staple of a a society; justice. 

Mike Ghouse
# # #

Reuven Rivlin: The land is not divisible

Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin referred to a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I would prefer for the Palestinians to be citizens of this country,” he said, “rather than divide the land.”

By Noam Sheizaf Jul. 15, 2010 | 1:45 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/reuven-rivlin-the-land-is-not-divisible-1.302140

Two months ago, at a meeting with the Greek ambassador, devoted largely to discussing the financial crisis, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin referred to a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “I would prefer for the Palestinians to be citizens of this country,” he said, “rather than divide the land.” This was no slip of the tongue. Rivlin’s office gave the statement to the press, thereby making him the highest-ranking political figure to have publicly raised the possibility of a single State of Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan.

Rivlin places those comments within the framework of a broader outlook: The land, he says, is not divisible. Jews and Arabs have lived side by side here since the dawn of Zionism and before. His own family arrived in Palestine in the early 19th century. Settlement east of the Green Line is no more moral than settlement to the west of it. And incidentally, the Palestinian claim is as legitimate and just as the Jewish claim.

And the solution? The Knesset Speaker rejects the idea of a “state of all its citizens”, i.e. − a binational state. But he is pondering the possibility of some kind of joint sovereignty arrangement in Judea and Samaria under the Jewish state, or even a regime composed of two parliaments, one Jewish and one Arab.

“We’re living in a political reality that requires answers. “When people say that the demographic threat necessitates a separation, my reply is that the lesser danger, the lesser evil, is a single state in which there are equal rights for all citizens. Realpolitik requires us to opt for the danger in the demographic threat over the existential threat of separation.

“As a rule, whenever I hear about a demographic threat, it comes first of all from a type of thinking that says the Arabs are a threat. And this leads to thinking of transfer, or that they should be killed. I am appalled by this kind of talk. I go into schools, and when they hold mock elections, Lieberman gets 40 percent of the vote and I hear kids saying that Arabs should be killed. It seems to me that many of the belligerent Jewish movements that were built upon hatred of Arabs − and I’m not only talking about Lieberman, but within the Likud as well − grew out of the patronizing-socialist attitude that said ‘They’ll be there and we’ll be here.’ I have never understood this. When Jabotinsky says ‘Zion is all ours,’ he means a Jewish prime minister and an Arab deputy prime minister.

“There is a conflict in the Middle East between two entities, and they’re both right, each in their own way. This is our only home, and therefore all kinds of solutions can be found. One could establish a system in one state in which Judea and Samaria are jointly held. The Jews would vote for a Jewish parliament and the Palestinians for an Arab parliament, and we would create a system in which life is shared. But these are things that will take time. Anyone who thinks that there are shortcuts is talking nonsense. As long as Islamic fundamentalism thinks that Jews are forbidden to settle in the Holy Land, we have a problem. It will not be resolved by an agreement, even if we obtain a promise from all the Arab states that it will be fine.

“So if people say to me: Decide − one state or division of the Land of Israel, I say that division is the bigger danger. In an Israel with six million Jews it is much easier to sustain the vision of a Jewish and democratic state than it was in 1948. The people who now say that we must separate because otherwise the state will not be democratic or will lose its Jewish character would, for the same reasons, have said that no state should have been founded in 1948.

“I understand the difficulty with what I’m saying. It seems incomplete. But I know that we’ve overcome much bigger problems in the past. My friends on the left, like Beilin and Jumas [Haim Oron] are true Zionists and Israeli patriots, but this talk about separation, this attitude of patronage, is what gives rise to the hatred that is keeping us from reaching a solution.”
 # # #

Related articles

Historical case for Europe to recognize Palestine
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anders-persson/the-historical-case-for-e_b_6673224.html

Heroes of 2014: Reuven ‘Ruvi’ Rivlin, president of Israel
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/31/reuven-rivlin-ruvi-president-israel-likud-palestinian-rights

President Obama you must vote for Palestine Now

http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2011/09/president-obama-you-must-vote-for.html

A ray of hope for the peace process
http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-ray-of-hope-for-israeli-palestinian.html

Board Members of Israel Palestine Confederation 
http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/03/board-members-of-israeli-palestinian.html

Presidential candidates pledge to the flag of Israel

URL - http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2012/10/presidential-candidates-pledge-to-flag.html

The Israelis must be laughing at these guys racing to prove who is loyal to Israel.  Jews need sincerity and not duplicity to feel secure. 

Cartoon Courtesy of Sherif Arafa

was another cartoon, where the candidates were in a competition,  "who licks the most" while Netanyahu was enjoying the service. 

A genuine security is like a child in mother’s lap; safe and free from fears. Israel needs security and Palestinians justice; one does not happen without the other. 

We the Americans,  and the Arabs have screwed up peace for them (both) by supporting one against the other, instead of getting them to sit down face to face and work it out. We give them funds and we have earned the right to ask Israel to be serious, and Arabs have the right to ask the Palestinians to be serious. 

Our aid should be dependent on peace they achieve. No fits and tantrum from Netanyahu should be acceptable to compromise long term security of Israel.  No progress no monies, period. We owe it to the people of Israel and Palestine and not their bad leaders. 

We need to be prepared to explain the short term rioting by the right wingers, who will jump all over, and the responsible parties need to get them involved and have them see the long term security for Israelis and justice for Palestinians, and not the short-term appeasements.
 We must protect Israel, our ally; however, if that protection is based on injustice to either Palestinians or the Israelis, our integrity becomes questionable,  and solutions would be unsustainable. We need to be above reproach and seek justice for one and all.  If we are a sincere ally, we need to be tough on our ally to put them on the path of security. The Palestinians will yield for peace if they see our sincerity.   
----

I am please to add a few pieces of conversation from the face book:

• Najma M. Adam Salam Mike. Long time since I've commented on your blog, though I do keep up with your wonderful and necessary work. Agree with you on the above and love the cartoon. It may be a trivial detail, but I take issue with the sentence "We must protect Israel, our ally;...." WHY are we all socialized to think of Israel as our ally? WTH is Israel doing for us, really? If you get a chance to read or hear Mearsheimer and Walt's work on AIPAC and Israel, I'd highly recommend it. I'd like to advocate a just perspective -- that we protect both our allies, Israel and Palestine. And, I'd go one step further and say let's strive toward more allies internationally. This isolationist existence and sleeping with Israel while they continue instigating, murdering, and colonizing another nation and its people is what has partially led to extremists rising, IMHO. Long and short of this, Mike, is let's not say "our ally Israel" as if it is a fact. If you look at the billions of aid given to Israel (for?), it's much more accurate to say "Israel our burden".

  
  

  Mike Ghouse Dear Najma M. Adam, Salaam to you as well;
  
  Thanks for sharing your perspective, I deeply respect it. Indeed, I have kept up with the Israel-Palestine conflict fairly closely - both the people have been a victim of our (the world) bias.
  
  Indeed, our aid must be tied to progress in peace and justice, like you, I have shared that in the original note above. The ally comment is below.
  
  We did nothing till the tail end of the Holocaust, and that burns me, the scene where Jews (children, women, seniors) were pushed to the edge of pits and fired to death has been hard on me. The looks on their faces haunt me about the inhumanity in us (all of us) - where are you my friends? They silently endured the pain. In my college days, I helped a friend with answers in the exam and was caught and sat in the principal’s office… those friends did not even come by to see me. That betrayal is gnawing, I am sure all of us have been betrayed from time to time. When I see the helplessness of rape victims, when I hear a child being abused by his or her loved ones… it puts a pause in my life and I seek solutions.
  
  The Palestinians were thrown in to wretchedness for three generations, we (the world) kept blaming every one and but did nothing, and that burns me. They don’t have a home land in their own land, they don’t have a passport, they don’t have an identify, how humiliating that must be! Of course there are a lot more tragedies out there, but you get attached with some and they become a part of you without dimuniting the other tragedies.
  
  Israel is our ally, when the Arabs were out to annihilate them in 1967 (it’s a war thing and every damned warring nation is guilty of that including us). Israel needed us, and we did the right thing in supporting them, and that bondage has grown over the years. If you recall the Presidents before that did not support Israel. But our allyship does not mean that we should be unjust to the Palestinians, absolutely not. I am in the front supporting the rights of the Palestinians and Jews.
  
  I have been not kind to Netanyahu. Netanyahu is not Israel, he is an opportunist politician, he is not for Jews or Israel, and he is for himself like Madoff. But we cannot shirk our responsibility to Israel and Palestinians because of Netanyahu or Abu Mashaal.
  
  I have always stood up for the people who are wronged. I have been chewed out by a few right winger Jews for standing up with Palestinians on the Gaza massacre, held prayers… and have been chewed out by right winger Muslims for commemorating Holocaust every year. Right wingers do not represent humanity, they are for themselves and we don’t have to mirror them. It is about humanity and not politics. I feel the pain for both people and if we fail to feel that, something about humanity is missing in us.
  

  Mike Ghouse Carol Duff, it has happened after the war as well. I felt the same pain when the Rohingis were returned back to ocean by Bangladesh, if they went back to their home Burma, they would have been slaughtered.. All people have suffered, we need to see them as fellow humans and feel their anguish and pain, that completes the humanness in us, makes us a better being.

Mike Ghouse is committed to cohesive societies.
www.IsraelPalestineDialogue.com
www.MikeGhouse.net

Not Israel but Israeli leaders responsible for Isolation.

Not Israel but Israeli leaders responsible for Isolation. http://www.voanews.com/english/news/polls/

9/18/2011 2:17 PM

# Is Israel’s growing isolation in the Middle East due to anti-Israel sentiments, its own actions and policies or a combination of both?

Anti-Israel sentiments in Middle East
24% (519)

Its own actions and policies
46% (992)

Combination of both
27% (594)

Not sure
1% (30)

Total Votes : 2135
Not a Scientific Poll

Do you support the Palestinians’ recognition bid at the United Nations?

Yes
60% (310)

No
36% (187)

Not sure
2% (15)

Total Votes : 512

President Obama, you must vote for Palestine now

Since President Truman, none of the American presidents have had the balls to take a stand and do the right thing; facilitate a lasting solution for the conflict between Israel and Palestine. The talk of two states remains a hoax without recognition of Palestine as a nation. It is a necessity for the security of Israel to recognize Palestine; it will tie the loose ends.

Two videos:..

MR. PRESIDENT, YOU MUST VOTE FOR PALESTINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNYmI6MlhZw 

YES TO PALESTINE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WA2NlDU-LM

Sixty three years have been squandered with no signs of genuine security for the Jews; they have been living with an unsettling fear and have been on-the-run for their whole history. Not a week goes by where Anti-Semitism is not countered in Europe, it is there in Latin America and it is there in Asia.

The Jews have not been able to breathe freely. There is a genuine phobia that someday a segment of radical Christians will uproot them as Germany did in the recent past and Spain some five hundred years ago, those were the only nations where the Jews felt home twice in their history but were betrayed both the times.

Shamelessly, anti-Semitism continues to operate under the radar in the United States. Not a month passes here in the United States without the markings of Anti-Semitism. Some one’s house is painted with Swastika, someone yells at them “you people” or opens the fire in the Holocaust Museum or demonstrates hateful placards like “Christ Killers”, there are still a few Christians out there who cannot shake this off from their chests.

Shame on our civilization that one group of people has to live in apprehensions of the other. It is just not the Jews but many a minorities in the world live in fears of the other. Shouldn’t we feel bad about it? Are we evil that someone has to be afraid of us? It has got to change.

Recognition of Palestine will put an end to the phobias and fears. The Jewish anxieties will subside when they realize for the second time in their history (first one was creation of Israel) that they are able to live a life of justice, which is a central tenet of Judaism that they had abandoned for security. It will free their psyche. It will have a domino effect, one by one, the Arab nations will recognize Israel’s right to exist over a few years. It simply means acceptance of Israel and a welcome call to the neighborhood.

The real enemies of Israel are those who are milking monies in the name of Israel. It is business to them, they are the Madoffs whose sincerity to Israel is doubtful but loyalty to cashing in the name of Israel is certain. They are manipulators and constantly coerce our congress and senate and get their way.  Heck, they have made it worse for Israel by aggravating the conflicts.

The Judeo-Christian phrase was thrown around 40's to make up for the guilt. A whole industry of opportunists was born from that. The two faced support for Jews by Billy Graham, Richard Nixon, Pat Robertson, John Hagee, Glenn Beck and other chest thumpers had ulterior motives. They wanted to cash in on the name of Israel and perhaps convert them or pre-empt God for the Armageddon.

Jews need sincerity and not duplicity to feel secure. A genuine security is like a child in mother’s lap; safe and free from fears. Jews need to feel there is a home for them, where they can chat with friends in a café and carry on conversations without any fear, have zero fears for their school going children or ride the bus without fear.  More than that, Jews can live their life again as they wanted to; to be a just people.

All of that is possible once the Palestinians feel justice is finally served to them. Shame on our cvilization, we have not cared for the lives of Palestinians, they are deprived of the very basics of life; a home and a nationality.  We have stripped them from their hopes, it will change with this recognition.

President Obama has an opportunity to finalizing the transaction for Israel which was opened by President Truman. Prior to President Truman’s decision to recognize Israel, he was vehemently opposed by many in his administration including the Secretary of State George Marshall, Truman was threatened that his administration will be wrecked, indeed “the wise men” firmly opposed recognition of Israel. Did Truman budge?

President Obama will be equally hounded by Fox News and the right wingers. He has a choice to stand up and act with courage and become a one term president with balls and leave a lasting legacy of bringing genuine security to Israel and hope for the Palestinians.

If President Obama vetoes for Palestinian Statehood, he will do more damage to America’s stature in the community of nations besides keeping Israel in the state of anxiety until another Truman is born.

Let’s recognize Palestine and continue the peace process. It will abate the strife between Jews and Muslims and restore the cordiality that existed prior to the World War I. It is good for Israel, good for Palestine, good for America and good for the Middle East and the World.

Mike Ghouse is committed to building cohesive Societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day to the media and the public. He is a speaker thinker and a writer on the topics of pluralism, cohesive societies, Politics, Islam, interfaith, India and Peace. Over a thousand articles have been published on the topics and two of his books are poised to be released on Pluralism and Islam. Mike's work is reflected in 4 website's and 27 Blogs indexed at http://www.mikeghouse.net/ and you can find all of his current articles at www.TheGhousediary.com

Uri Avnery on Palestinian Vote

URI Avnery September 17, 2011 Sad and Happy

“WILL THIS be the happiest day of your life?” a local interviewer asked me, referring to the approaching recognition of the State of Palestine by the UN.

I was taken by surprise. “Why would that be?” I asked.

“Well, for 62 years you have advocated the establishment of a Palestinian state next to Israel, and here it comes!”

“If I were a Palestinian, I would probably be happy,” I said, “But as an Israeli, I am rather sad.”

LET ME explain.

I came out of the 1948 war with four solid convictions:

(1) There exists a Palestinian people, though the name Palestine had been wiped off the map.

(2) It is with this Palestinian people that we must make peace.

(3) Peace will be impossible unless the Palestinians are allowed to set up their state next to Israel.

(4) Without peace, Israel will not be the model state we had been dreaming about in the trenches, but something very different.

While recovering from my wounds and still in uniform, I met with several young people, Arabs and Jews, to plot our course. We were very optimistic. Now everything seemed possible.

What we were thinking about was a great act of fraternization. Jews and Arabs had fought each other valiantly, each fighting for what they considered their national rights. Now the time had come to reach out for peace.

The idea of peace between two gallant fighters after the battle is as old as Semitic culture. In the epic written more than 3000 years ago, Gilgamesh, king of Uruk (in today’s Iraq) fights against the wild Enkidu, his equal in strength and courage, and after the epic fight they become blood brothers.

We had fought hard and had won. The Palestinians had lost everything. The part of Palestine that had been allotted by the UN to their state had been gobbled up by Israel, Jordan and Egypt, leaving nothing for them. Half the Palestinian people had been driven from their homes and become refugees.

That was the time, we thought, for the victor to stun the world with an act of magnanimity and wisdom, offering to help the Palestinians to set up their state in return for peace. Thus we could forge a friendship that would last for generations.

18 years later I brought this vision up again in similar circumstances. We had won a stunning victory against the Arab armies in the Six-Day war, the Middle East was in a state of shock. An Israeli offer to the Palestinians to establish their state would have electrified the region.

I AM telling this story (again) in order to make one point: when the “Two-State Solution” was conceived for the first time after 1948, it was as an idea of reconciliation, fraternization and mutual respect.

We envisaged two states living closely together, with borders open to the free movement of people and goods. Jerusalem, the joint capital, would symbolize the spirit of the historic change. Palestine would become the bridge between the new Israel and the Arab world, united for the common good. We spoke of a “Semitic Union” long before the European Union became a reality.

When the Two-State Solution made its extraordinary march from the vision of a handful of outsiders (or crazies) to a world-wide consensus, it was this context in which it was viewed. Not a plot against Israel, but the only viable basis for real peace.

This vision was firmly rejected by David Ben-Gurion, then the undisputed leader of Israel. He was busy distributing new Jewish immigrants across the vast areas expropriated from the Arabs, and he did not believe in peace with the Arabs anyhow. He set the course that successive Israeli governments, including the present one, have followed ever since.

On the Arab side, there was always support for this vision. Already at the Lausanne Conference in 1949, an unofficial Palestinian delegation appeared and secretly offered to start direct negotiations, but they were roughly rebuffed by the Israeli delegate, Eliyahu Sasson, on direct orders from Ben-Gurion (as I heard from him later).

Yasser Arafat told me several times – from 1982 to his death in 2004 – that he would support a “Benelux” solution (on the model of the union between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg), which would include Israel, Palestine and Jordan (“and perhaps Lebanon too, why not?”)

PEOPLE SPEAK about all the opportunities for peace missed by Israel throughout the years. That is nonsense: you can miss opportunities on the way to a goal that you desire, but not on the way to something you abhor.

Ben-Gurion saw an independent Palestinian state as a mortal danger to Israel. So he made a secret deal with King Abdullah I, dividing between them the territory allocated by the UN partition plan to the Arab Palestinian state. All Ben-Gurion's successors inherited the same dogma: that a Palestinian state would be a terrible danger. Therefore they opted for the so-called ”“Jordanian option” – keeping what is left of Palestine under the heel of the Jordanian monarch, who is no Palestinian (nor even Jordanian - his family came from Mecca).

This week, the present Jordanian ruler, Abdullah II, flew into a rage when told that yet another Israeli former general, Uzi Dayan, had again proposed turning Jordan into Palestine, with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip as “provinces” of the Hashemite kingdom. This Dayan is, unlike his late cousin, Moshe, a pompous fool, but even a speech by such a person infuriates the king, who is mortally afraid of an influx of Palestinians driven from the West Bank into Jordan.

Three days ago, Binyamin Netanyahu told Cathy Ashton, the pathetic “foreign secretary” of the European Union, that he would agree to anything short of Palestinian statehood. That may sound strange, in view of the “historic” speech he made less than two years ago, in which he expressed his support for the Two-State Solution. (Perhaps he was thinking of the State of Israel and the State of the Settlers.)

In the few remaining weeks before the UN vote, our government will fight tooth and nail against a Palestinian state, supported by the full might of the US. This week Hillary Clinton trumped even her own rhetorical record when she announced that the US supports the Two-State Solution and therefore opposes any UN vote recognizing a Palestinian state.

APART FROM the dire threats of what will happen after the UN vote for a Palestinian state, Israeli and American leaders assure us that such a vote will make no difference at all.

If so, why fight it?

Of course it will make a difference. The occupation will go on, but it will be the occupation of one state by another. In history, symbols count. The fact that the vast majority of the world’s nations will have recognized the State of Palestine will be another step towards gaining freedom for Palestine.

What will happen the day after? Our army has already announced that it has finished preparations for huge Palestinian demonstrations that will attack the settlements. The settlers will be called upon to mobilize their “quick-reaction teams” to confront the demonstrators, thus fulfilling the prophecies of a “bloodbath”. After that the army will move in, pulling many battalions of regular troops from other tasks and calling up reserve units.

A few weeks ago I pointed to ominous signs that sharpshooters would be employed to turn peaceful demonstrations into something very different, as happened during the second intifada. This week this was officially confirmed: sharpshooters will be employed to defend the settlements.

All this amounts to a war plan for the settlements. To put it simply: a war to decide whether the West Bank belongs to the Palestinians or the settlers.

In an almost comical turn of events, the army is also providing means of crowd dispersal to the Palestinian security forces trained by the Americans. The occupation authorities expect these Palestinian forces to protect the settlements against their compatriots. Since these are the armed forces of the future Palestinian state, which is opposed by Israel, it all sounds a bit bewildering.

According to the army, the Palestinians will get rubber-coated bullets and tear gas, but not the “Skunk”.

The Skunk is a device that produces an unbearable stench which attaches itself to the peaceful demonstrators and will not leave them for a long time. I am afraid that when this chapter comes to an end, the stench will attach itself to our side, and that we shall not get rid of it for a long time indeed.

LET’S GIVE free rein to our imagination for just one minute.

Imagine that in the coming UN debate something incredible happens: the Israeli delegate declares that after due consideration Israel has decided to vote for recognition of the state of Palestine.

The assembly would gape in disbelief. After a moment of silence, wild applause would break out. The world would be electrified. For days, the world media would speak of nothing else.

The minute of imagination has passed. Back to reality. Back to the Skunk.

Israel needs to stop talking and start negotiating - Haaretz

Killing the Oslo process, giving up on the two-state solution and perpetuating Israel's rule over millions of Palestinians would jeopardize its very existence as a Jewish and democratic state.

Haaretz Editorial

As if the crisis in relations with Turkey, the deterioration of Israel's ties with Egypt and Jordan and the erosion of its standing in Europe were not enough, government spokesmen are now trying to outdo each other in promising to deepen the occupation of the territories.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened on Wednesday that a UN decision to recognize a Palestinian state "will have grave consequences." His deputy, Danny Ayalon, called for annexing the West Bank settlement blocs and expediting construction in the settlements. MK Ofir Akunis (Likud ), a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, did not make do with annexing the "blocs"; he proposed applying Israeli sovereignty to the entire territory.

Concern over the disastrous impact such irresponsible reactions could have on regional stability brought U.S. President Barack Obama's envoys, Dennis Ross and David Hale, as well as EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton here this week. The three were recruited for a last-ditch effort to reach an agreed-on formula that would allow a resumption of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and reduce the danger of an outbreak of violence in the territories.

As they shuttled between Ramallah and Jerusalem, the envoys discovered that the parties were entrenched in their positions. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas held fast to his demand that talks be based on Obama's speech of May 19 (the 1967 borders with mutually agreed territorial swaps ) and a 90-day hiatus on construction in the settlements. Netanyahu insisted that the Palestinians agree in advance to recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. He also rejected Abbas' demand to freeze construction in the settlements.

Neither the crisis with the Palestinians in the international arena nor the danger that it will deteriorate into a violent regional confrontation are decrees of fate. Instead of flexing its muscles and spouting deranged ideas, the government must cooperate wholeheartedly with representatives of the Quartet to find a creative solution that will stop the deterioration.illing the Oslo process, giving up on the two-state solution and perpetuating Israel's rule over millions of Palestinians would jeopardize its very existence as a Jewish and democratic state.