Palestine
In the heart of Palestinian consensus
 TEL AVIV - Forty years after the Six-Day War, the Palestinian attitude that has become consolidated toward the State of Israel is quite clear: It is possible and necessary to achieve an agreement for coexistence with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders. Israelis who think it is possible to reach an accord with the Palestinians that includes annexation of settlement blocs in the West Bank or leaves East Jerusalem under Israeli jurisdiction are deluding themselves. In all the decades that have passed since occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, not a single Palestinian voice has been heard that agrees to less than that. Of course, there have been those who demanded more, and even today some want to destroy Israel entirely, but no Palestinian will agree to allow Israel to annex even one meter beyond the boundaries of the Green Line. by Danny Rubinstein |
Palestine's leaders have become their own worst enemies
Daily Star Editorial date: 2007-01-11
BEIRUT - Ever since Hamas came to power in democratic elections last January, the spectre of internecine violence has haunted the Palestinian territories. Attempts over the past year to negotiate an agreement that would allow Hamas and Fatah to share power were interrupted by armed clashes, but many still held out hope that the two factions would eventually recognize the futility of their ways and arrive at some form of compromise.
However, this past week has seen a rapid degeneration from bad to worse: a series of gun battles, abductions and raids-occurrences which have become alarmingly common in the territories-culminated with officials from Hamas and Fatah issuing public threats to kill one another's leaders. The chasm between the two factions has never been wider, and the leaders of both parties are to blame for dragging their population to the brink of civil war.
Palestinians as partners
 Ziad Asali writes, "A historic negotiated compromise that results in a viable state of Palestine on land occupied in 1967, with mutually agreed borders and with Arab Jerusalem as its capital, is an Israeli imperative as it is a Palestinian need. It is Israel's best guarantee to survive the new existential strategic threats and the ultimate guarantee for security and peace for both nations. And for Palestinians to achieve their freedom and viable state, they must repudiate Hamas' regression to the olden days of rejection of Israel's pre-1967 borders." |
Israel and Hamas' Truce Offer
 One of the most common themes heard in discussions of U.S. policy in the Middle East these days is that Washington should be speaking to the key players in the region -- like Syria, Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah -- instead of boycotting them. Yet when it comes to Israel speaking with Hamas in Palestine, the same rational suggestions are not heard. Israel remains a state that enjoys unique standards of behavior in the world, both in terms of what it should and should not do. |
No negotiations, no peace
 "It is true that with the current chaos and almost complete breakdown of law and order on the Palestinian side, it seems almost absurd to renew the peace process. However, it is also absurd not to understand that the developing alternative to Hamas, if the situation there continues to deteriorate, is not a return of Fatah but the rise of al-Qaida and similar groups," says Gershon Baskin. |
Leadership needed to prevent chaos, internal fighting
 by Daoud Kuttab
Palestinians living in the occupied territories are clutching at straws these days. The one-month public servants strike which crippled all public institutions and kept hundreds of thousands of Palestinian students in the streets does not seem any closer to a resolution. |
Toward a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict
| "With the recent Lebanese-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli crises, a new global Middle East peace initiative is urgently needed to generate a final and comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict," writes Gareth Evans. "So long as that conflict continues, everyone will be losers except the extremists throughout the world who prosper on the rage it continues to provoke." by Garth Evans |
