November 26, 2006
WHEN YOU'VE AGREED, WHY HAGGLE?:
In Washington: What's your solution? (MJ Rosenberg, Nov. 23, 2006, THE JERUSALEM POST)
[My colleague] said that all you have to do is ask the status-quo supporters, "So, how is your solution doing?" That is a perfect response.There is no reason for those of us who support negotiations to feel defensive or to give a point-by-point rebuttal to those who champion the status quo. Just tell them to read the newspapers.
The Oslo process collapsed in the fall of 2000 and, ever since, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has intensified with a vengeance. Compare the half dozen civilians killed inside Israel between the fall of 1997 and the fall of 2000, and the 1,125 Israelis and 4,286 Palestinians killed since.
The only people who should be defensive about the diplomatic process are those who oppose it.
Of course, no one ever flat-out says they oppose negotiations.
To the contrary, what should be tested is skipping negotiation altogether and giving the Palestinians what their people want.
MORE:
Israel accepts ceasefire offer (Herb Keinon, Yaakov Katz and JPost staff, Nov. 25, 2006, THE JERUSALEM POST)
Israel announced on Saturday, following a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, that it would accept the Palestinian factions' offer of a ceasefire.Posted by Orrin Judd at November 26, 2006 10:21 AMAccording to the Prime Minister's Office, Abbas phoned Olmert and told him he had received an agreement from all the different Palestinian factions to the cease-fire, and in response "requested that Israel would stop all military operations in the Gaza Strip, and withdraw all its forces from there."
The statement said that after speaking to his senior ministers and top security officials, Olmert told Abbas that Israel would respond favorably "since Israel was operating in the Gaza Strip in response to the [Palestinian] violence."
Olmert, according to the statement, told Abbas that "the end of the violence could bring about the end of Israeli operations, and his hope that this would bring stability to both sides."
and giving the Palestinians what their people want.
That quick trip back home to Allah they keep talking about?
to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them
Posted by: oj at November 26, 2006 1:01 PM"giving the Palestinians what their people want" What do their people want? A Palestinian state? If so, why did they send rockets to Israel after the Israelis withdrew and let them have Gaza back. To wipe the Jews off the map? I don't believe the Jews will comply with that.
Posted by: ic at November 26, 2006 2:33 PMYes.
Posted by: oj at November 26, 2006 3:47 PM