Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period.

[Scurrilous]

On Wednesday, a coalition of Israeli peace organizations published a list of 50 reasons for Israel to support a Palestinian state. Assuming that you only accept five of them, isn't that enough? What exactly is the alternative, now that the heavens are closing in around us?

<snip>

"What will we tell the world next week, at the UN? What could we say? Whether in the General Assembly or the Security Council, we will be exposed in all our nakedness: Israel does not want a Palestinian state. Period. And it doesn't have a single persuasive argument against the establishment and the international recognition of such a state.

So what will we say, that we're opposed? Four prime ministers, Benjamin Netanyahu among them, have said that they're in favor, that it must be accomplished through negotiations, so why haven't we done it yet? Is our argument that we object to it's being a unilateral measure? What's more unilateral than the settlements that we insist on continuing to build? Or perhaps we will say that the route to a Palestinian state runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem, not New York, a la the U.S. secretary of state. The State of Israel itself was created, in part, in the United Nations.

Next week will be Israel's moment of truth, or more precisely the moment in which its deception will be revealed. Be it the president, the prime minister or the ambassador to the UN, even the greatest of public speakers will be incapable of standing before the representatives of the nations of the world and explaining Israeli logic; none of the three will be able to convince them that there is any merit to Israel's position."

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-does-not-want-a-palestinian-state-period-1.384559

[Firebrand Gary]

1. What do you think is going to go down next week?

[holdencaufield]

2. Nothing will change next week

Regardless of the GA vote, the West Bank won't become an official state, no borders will be agreed, nothing will change with the settlements or the presence of IDF in the West Bank.

This is theatre.

[JoDog]

6. You're likely right

An interesting thing someone pointed out to me: The PA cannot stop at accepting just Judea/Samara, Gaza or some combination of the two. Doing so would be to accept a 2-state solution. That is a de facto recognition of Israel. So the PA may very well ask for something they cannot take unless they violate one of their cornerstone principles. This means one of 2 things: 1. The PA is ready to give that up, or 2. This is a bunch of shadow puppets. Number 2 is more likely. The question is, to what end is this theater production?

[Scurrilous]

4. I'm terrible at predictions.

See here:

+++ NFL Picks / Week 2 +++

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=215x186160

Standings after one week:

Player / Percentage / Games Behind

many a good man / .667 / —
brendan120678 / .667 / —

Redbear / .600 / .5
Liberal_Dog / .600 / .5
PRETZEL / .600 / .5

anakie / .533 / 1
Condem / .533 / 1
trumad / .533 / 1

Goblinmonger / .467 / 1.5
joeybee12 / .467 / 1.5

Auggie / .400 / 2
Doctor_J / .400 / 2
InternalDialogue / .400 / 2
JonLP24 / .400 / 2
RockaFowler / .400 / 2

Scurrilous / .333 / 2.5

:P

[shira]

3. Oh great, Gideon Levy. An anti-zionist against an Israeli state complaining about people...

...against a Palestinian state.

Perfect.

J-Street just came out against the Palestinian UN bid. Is J-Street also against a Palestinian state, period?

Moron.

[JoDog]

5. And the Palestinians

do not want the Jewish Israeli state to exist. Period. So what's new?