US urges Israel to end isolation in Middle East

[alp227]

Source: AP

US defence secretary Leon Panetta has urged Israel to "reach out and mend fences" with Turkey, Egypt and other security partners in the Middle East, saying he is troubled by the Jewish state's growing isolation in the volatile region.

In a speech at a Brookings Institution forum in Washington, Panetta said that while Israel is not solely responsible for its isolation, it could more actively attempt to reverse the trend.

"For example, Israel can reach out and mend fences with those who share an interest in regional stability countries like Turkey and Egypt, as well as Jordan," he said. "This is not impossible. If the gestures are rebuked, the world will see those rebukes for what they are. And that is exactly why Israel should pursue them."

He also pressed Israeli leaders to do more to restart peace talks with the Palestinians "Just get to the damned table" and underscored President Barack Obama's determination to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. He called Iran "a very grave threat to all of us" and said any Iranian disruption of the free flow of commerce through the Persian Gulf is a "red line" for the US.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/03/us-israel-isolation-leon-panetta

[ellisonz]

1. Israel has been getting to the "damned table."

Time and time again it is the Palestinians who are divided and unwilling to make a deal. Who exactly is Israel supposed to be negotiating with in Gaza?

:hide:

[Chipper Chat]

2. Allah.

[loudsue]

3. Some of us strongly disagree with that statement.

Just sayin'.

[krucial]

4. Israel

The statement is correct.The problem is too many Americans are blind to israels intransigence and just ignore their stubborn refusal to stop ripping off more land, and forever building new illegal settlements,while blaming the Palestinians for 100% of the all the problems.
They want the Palestinians to agree to talks that have not got anywhere while they keep taking land.
American politicians are total hypocrites when it comes to the issue,and so the Palestinians are in a lose lose situation as long as the US remains in the middle.
If this status quo remains,the Palestinians can forget about any viable underpayment state by the time Israel decide that they are serious about peace,because there will not be enough land left for the Palestinians to call any kind of state.
The US was never was,is not,and can "NEVER" be and honest broker in that issue

[ellisonz]

5. Hamas has sworn to the destruction of Israel.

They run Gaza. Any peace agreement with Fattah would only govern the West Bank. There is no legitimate Palestinian government to speak off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_Camp_David_Summit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taba_summit

This is not an Israeli-Palestinian issue. This is an Israeli-Fattah-Hamas issue.

[No Elephants]

11. The Palestinians might beg to differ.

[Spider Jerusalem]

6. When the preconditions for any successful negotiations...

include halting of settlement construction (which the Israeli government refuses to do), then I'm not sure how one can expect the Palestinians to negotiate with an Israel that's clearly not acting in good faith and seems bent on limiting the scope of any Palestinian demands through de facto occupation of Palestinian territory behind the green line.

[ellisonz]

7. When the preconditions for any successful negotiations...

include the complete abandonment of the idea that Israel will be driven into the sea and active effort to stop attacks of terror then there will be peace. Hamas is not willing to do that so long as they receive black market weapons and put their hatred before their common sense.

Abbas: Land swap principle reached
Netanyahu says Mitchell has yet to approach J'lem with proposal.
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
05/23/2010 04:30

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said on Saturday that the Palestinians and Israel have agreed on the principle of a land swap, but denied that the two sides had reached any further agreement in this regard.

The issue of the ratio of land Israel would give to the Palestinians in exchange for keeping settlement blocs has long been an issue of dispute, with the Palestinians demanding that the ratio be 1:1, and Israel offering less.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, however, stressed on Sunday that no agreement had been reached on the issue of land swaps, telling Likud ministers that US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had yet to approach the Israeli government with such a proposal from the Palestinian side.

--------

Abbas, speaking to reporters in Ramallah while participating in a campaign to boycott goods manufactured in West Bank settlements, said that the two sessions of indirect talks that took place in the past week have not made any progress yet.

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=176148

The real problem has always been the idea that the Palestinians can "win" and it is Hamas with their sponsors Iran and Syria who encourage that idea. The day Hamas has to throw off that yoke of Arab vengeance is the day there will be peace in the Holy Land. Both sides have made mistakes, but it is at the end of the day Hamas that is the cog in the negotiating machine.

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. Who mentioned Hamas? I'm talking about Israel.

And the legitimate and recognised representative of the Palestinians is the Palestinian Authority (protip: the PA also rejects negotiations without a settlement freeze.)

[ellisonz]

12. And I'm talking about why Israel has no real expectation of peace right now.

With that dynamic it is a very politically sensitive issue to halt the settlements. The PA has only limited power even in the West Bank. Hamas controls Gaza; that is indisputable. There are 1.65 million Palestinians in Gaza. There are 2.34 million Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. There are 11 million Palestinians world-wide. You cannot make a deal with "Palestine" without addressing the issue of Hamas. They will not honor any agreement the PA makes. It is essentially a civil war. How can the PA practically claim to represent the Palestinians when it is little more than an extension of Fatah.

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. Israel's intransigence on the settlement issue is a large part of why it has no expectation of peace

to deny the importance of that as a factor is just wilful ignorance.

[ellisonz]

15. Likewise...

[No Elephants]

9. Self delete.

[No Elephants]

10. *heads to kitchen to pop corn*

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. Netanyahu has specifically ruled out any possibility whatsoever of any settlement freeze

ever again being instituted. The head of the Israeli government has also ruled out any possibility of the removal ever again of any settlers - ever.

These are not the words of just any Minister in the Israeli government. They are the words of the head of the Israel government. Words that completely obliterate any possibility whatsoever of any plausible peace agreement.


http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/728a69d4-12b1-11dc-a475-000b5df10621.html?nclick_check=1


“there is no Palestinian state, even though the Israelis speak of one.” Instead, he said, “there will be a settler state and a Palestinian built-up area, divided into three sectors, cut by fingers of Israeli settlement and connected only by narrow roads."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/world/middleeast/11road.html?_r=12&pagewanted=2&ei=5070&en=22948d4799a34065&ex=1187496000&emc=eta1&oref