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- Syrians take to the streets amid reports of more explosions
Direct Talks…a new beginning or a waste of time?
In the beginning of September President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Netanyahu, King Abdullah, President Mubarak and President Obama are [singlepic id=286 w=320 h=240 float=right]supposed to meet in order to declare the beginning of a new round of Direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The negotiations are supposed to end in one year and bring a result that is supposed to give solutions for all the cases that Israel and the Palestinians do not agree on. Many analysts did not really see a good opportunity to achieve anything through these talks because of the formation of the Israeli government and the character of Prime Minister Netanyahu. Israel refused giving any promise to renew the freezing of settlements building in the West Bank while the Palestinians consider the settlements an obstacle that would prevent the success of any kind of negotiations between the two sides.
The new round of negotiations is different this time from any other former process; the Israelis insist that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state while they refuse any compromise in Jerusalem or the already built settlements in the West Bank. The Palestinians insist that Israel withdraw from all the 1967 occupied lands and consider this demand a minimum they can accept to assure that a possible future Palestinian state can be made and can enjoy real independence.
The current Israeli government will definitely refuse any kind of compromise in Jerusalem since it considers it the united capital of Israel. The refugees’ case is considered out of discussion and the Palestinian prisoners are considered terrorists that can never be released. In other words what Israel seems to seek is another year of negotiations without any target only to gain time for something bigger. Yesterday a group of former Israeli intelligence and army men paid a visit to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office in order to give him an advice about how to deal with the Iranian threat. According to these former army and intelligence officers, Iran will start an attack by asking Hezbullah, Hamas and Syria to start a wide rocket attack against Israeli targets. This attack is supposed to pull Israel to start a re-attack that will cost it a lot of weapons and Israeli souls. After this Iran is supposed to start a wider attack and then the whole situation would become more complicated since many sides would take part in a war that would be the most dangerous since World War II. Such an analysis would sound a fiction but it remains a possibility or could be used as a claim to start an Israeli attack while claiming that it is done to protect Israel.
Without a temporary solution for the Palestinian case no new war could be started since such an action would unite all the enemies of Israel together. The Palestinian negotiator must be smart enough to prevent Israel from using the Palestinian case as always for its benefit without giving the Palestinians anything. The International campaign against Israel’s violations against the International law and the daily harassment against the Palestinians must continue. The campaign against the settlements and their products must be supported and never stopped in order to continue the pressure on Israel and make it understand that using occupied lands to bring benefit for its economy is unaccepted neither by the Palestinians nor by the International law that considers it a violation.
And finally instead of building an “Associations State” the Palestinian leadership must find a solution for the Palestinian division and support the people through education, real economy and opportunities. The only winning card in the hands of the Palestinian leadership is the durability of the Palestinian people and therefore they must make sure not to lose it.
