The urgency of the Israeli-Palestinian situation today cannot be
overstated. Current peace efforts have lost all credibility.
Settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continues,
undermining the viability of the two-state solution. Moderate
Palestinian leaders, unable to deliver progress to their people through
negotiations, are under increasing pressure to pursue alternative
strategies. Violence and tensions on the ground are rising.
Recent
developments - including a bomb attack in West Jerusalem, the murder of a
settler family in the West Bank, and the growing Israel-Gaza
cross-border violence - are only the most recent evidence of the
potential for the situation on the ground to escalate into far more
intense and deadly conflict, with dire implications not only for the
safety and security of civilians on both sides but for United States.
The status quo is unsustainable and is set to be fundamentally
challenged in five months, when the United Nations is poised to act to
recognize the state of Palestine, and the Administration's September
deadline for a framework agreement runs out.
Unfortunately, since late 2010 the Obama Administration appears to have shifted from trying to resolve the conflict to trying to "manage" it - a shift that seems only to have been reinforced by the events sweeping the region since the start of 2011. This is a mistake. There is no "managing" this conflict. Each new development on the ground has the potential to escalate the situation into much greater conflict, inflaming and destabilizing the situation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and having destabilizing affects throughout the region and beyond. This threat is even more acute now than in the past, given the upheaval in the region. Left unaddressed, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will eventually complicate every aspect of President Obama's Middle East efforts, undermining his credibility and leadership and adding another destabilizing element to an already volatile situation.
Conversely, a resolute U.S. peace effort, led personally by President Obama, can have profoundly positive benefits for a wide range of U.S. interests - above and beyond the benefit of achieving peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. It would strengthen the U.S. as it navigates this challenging period in regional politics and could lay the groundwork for healthier future relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, based on shared democratic values. It could help reverse the deteriorating popular support in Jordan and Egypt for their peace treaties with Israel. Perhaps most important for the long-term, ending this conflict would provide an immense contribution to the future of the Middle East. There are sharp limits to what the U.S. can do to influence the outcome of the political upheaval that is sweeping the region; one thing - indeed, perhaps the most important thing - the U.S. can contribute is a determined push to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Addressing the issues of the security and the dignity of the Palestinian people can only help - and significantly strengthen - democracy advocates in the Arab world.
With this backdrop of turmoil in the region, escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, and the two-state solution itself in jeopardy, decisive action by President Obama can no longer be postponed. With every moment that passes, developments on the ground make things worse and lead toward a crisis that is as preventable as it will be devastating.
The release of the Israeli Peace Initiative is a timely reminder that there is a significant and influential constituency in Israel that is committed to peace and the two state solution on the basis of a realistic agreement that addresses the core concerns of both sides. Likewise, a large constituency exists in the U.S. that supports peace and wants to see determined U.S. leadership to achieve it. APN will work to help mobilize this constituency and to persuade the American Jewish community that peace is essential to Israel's survival--we are not leaving it to President Obama alone to take this on.
There is already a longstanding and broadly-based international consensus on most of the elements of a permanent status agreement. What has been lacking until now is the leadership and political will in the White House - under successive administrations - to bring the sides together and get them to stop playing games and wasting time, and at long last resolve remaining differences and come to an agreement. It is precisely that kind of leadership and political will that must be demonstrated now by President Obama. This requires the President to do the following:
1. Take ownership of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. President Obama must make clear that he is still personally invested in Israeli-Palestinian peace. He must explain to the American people and the world why a resolution of this conflict is vital to U.S. interests. This should include an articulation of the U.S. commitment to and vision for Israel's security - as a state living inside secure, recognized borders with peace agreements with its neighbors - alongside an articulation of the well-understood negative effects this continuing conflict has on U.S. interests in the region and beyond.
2. Lay out his vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace. President Obama must take the dramatic step of laying out his own vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and in sufficient detail that it cannot be ignored or dismissed by either of the parties, the international community, or domestic detractors. This should start with the articulation of permanent status parameters, consistent with longstanding U.S. policy that is well-known but has never been officially endorsed by any U.S. administration. These parameters must not be watered down in an effort to please either party; the time for constructive ambiguity - which has never proven constructive - has long passed. What are required today are positions that represent definitive markers for both Israelis and Palestinians. They must include:
• An explicit recognition of the June 4, 1967 border as the starting point for negotiations.
• An unequivocal embrace of equal (one-to-one) land swaps as the basis for an agreement regarding borders and settlements.
• An unambiguous declaration of the U.S. vision for West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem, respectively, as the capitals of Israel and Palestine, with the delineation of these capitals determined through negotiations.
• A clear articulation of the view that the implementation of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees into sovereign Israel must be limited by Israel's right to determine its character, and that an international mechanism to provide compensation for refugees will be established.
• A reiteration of the position that a negotiated agreement must address both Israeli and Palestinian security requirements, and U.S. support for a robust international role in guaranteeing mutually agreed-on security arrangements.
• A forthright definition of the end game: an agreement that definitively ends all claims and results in two politically and economically viable sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace within recognized borders, with security and contiguity, with their capitals in their respective parts of Jerusalem and with the character of each state determined by its citizens.
3. Explain how he plans to move forward. Laying down parameters is not enough; President Obama must make clear that he will remain engaged and is determined to see progress in the near term. This should include the announcement of a firm date for a presidential trip to the region as well as: plans for an international summit of heads of state, including leaders from the Arab and Muslim worlds, to be held by a specific date; plans to invite Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the White House; or some other initiative led personally by the President, not by a presidential envoy.
4. Get the international community on board. President Obama must make clear from the get-go that he views the international community as partners with a real role in implementing his vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Together, the U.S. and such partners can offer a powerful united front, making clear to Israeli and Palestinian leaders that this effort is serious.
5. Engage Israelis and Palestinians directly. President Obama must take ownership of the peace effort personally, making the dramatic gesture of addressing the Israeli and Palestinian peoples in the context of visits to Jerusalem and Ramallah. He must lay out for them the imperative of peace, the sacrifices necessary to achieve it, the immense benefits that will flow to both peoples from an historic settlement and the essential parameters for achieving an enduring settlement.
6. Refuse to be deterred by bogus domestic U.S. "political" considerations. The most pro-Israel U.S. President in history will not be the one who provides the most weapons to Israel or vetoes the most resolutions at the UN Security Council. It will be the President under whose leadership the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, allowing Israel to finally live within secure, internationally-recognized borders with its capital in Jewish Jerusalem recognized by the world. It will be the President who - by helping Israel make peace with the Palestinians - will pave the way for Israel to achieve peace and normal relations with the entire Arab world. President Obama must recognize that he earns no credit with the tiny segment of American Jews who oppose any realistic peace agreement by backing off from peace efforts. Indeed, more than two years of choosing to refrain from any lasting or meaningful pressure on Israel, while providing the current Israeli government unprecedented military, financial, and diplomatic support, has earned President Obama only disdain and demonization from peace opponents. Worse still, President Obama risks U.S. national security interests - including security and stability in the Middle East - by compromising his sensible, principled Middle East policy in a doomed effort to co-opt opponents.
7. Refuse to be deterred by bogus Israel and Palestinian domestic "political" considerations. US national security - in the Middle East and beyond - is linked to the credibility of U.S. efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. Given this reality, President Obama cannot allow himself to be diverted by the internal politics of either side. If it seems sometimes that the U.S. wants peace more than the parties themselves, so be it. If the current Netanyahu coalition is unwilling to make peace on the basis of the parameters set out by President Obama, the Israeli people will be faced with real choice about what kind of government they want. If the Palestinian leadership cannot resolve the West Bank-Gaza schism, ways to work around that issue can be found. The Palestinian leadership has signaled that its drive for UN recognition can be postponed, if meaningful peace negotiations are underway.
8. Be resolute and remain personally engaged until an agreement is reached. The success or failure of the next U.S. peace effort, like past efforts, will be a function of President Obama's readiness, in no small measure, to bring pressure to bear and hold the parties accountable, and to remain engaged and resolute, even if things get tough. Simply stated, no peace effort can succeed, regardless of its specifics, unless President Obama musters the political will to get the parties to take him seriously. This can only happen if the President makes clear that Israeli-Palestinian peace is a key U.S. national security interest and a foreign policy priority, and that obstructing U.S. peace efforts will have tangible costs.
Unfortunately, since late 2010 the Obama Administration appears to have shifted from trying to resolve the conflict to trying to "manage" it - a shift that seems only to have been reinforced by the events sweeping the region since the start of 2011. This is a mistake. There is no "managing" this conflict. Each new development on the ground has the potential to escalate the situation into much greater conflict, inflaming and destabilizing the situation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and having destabilizing affects throughout the region and beyond. This threat is even more acute now than in the past, given the upheaval in the region. Left unaddressed, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will eventually complicate every aspect of President Obama's Middle East efforts, undermining his credibility and leadership and adding another destabilizing element to an already volatile situation.
Conversely, a resolute U.S. peace effort, led personally by President Obama, can have profoundly positive benefits for a wide range of U.S. interests - above and beyond the benefit of achieving peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians. It would strengthen the U.S. as it navigates this challenging period in regional politics and could lay the groundwork for healthier future relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, based on shared democratic values. It could help reverse the deteriorating popular support in Jordan and Egypt for their peace treaties with Israel. Perhaps most important for the long-term, ending this conflict would provide an immense contribution to the future of the Middle East. There are sharp limits to what the U.S. can do to influence the outcome of the political upheaval that is sweeping the region; one thing - indeed, perhaps the most important thing - the U.S. can contribute is a determined push to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Addressing the issues of the security and the dignity of the Palestinian people can only help - and significantly strengthen - democracy advocates in the Arab world.
With this backdrop of turmoil in the region, escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, and the two-state solution itself in jeopardy, decisive action by President Obama can no longer be postponed. With every moment that passes, developments on the ground make things worse and lead toward a crisis that is as preventable as it will be devastating.
The release of the Israeli Peace Initiative is a timely reminder that there is a significant and influential constituency in Israel that is committed to peace and the two state solution on the basis of a realistic agreement that addresses the core concerns of both sides. Likewise, a large constituency exists in the U.S. that supports peace and wants to see determined U.S. leadership to achieve it. APN will work to help mobilize this constituency and to persuade the American Jewish community that peace is essential to Israel's survival--we are not leaving it to President Obama alone to take this on.
APN Recommendations to President Obama
There is already a longstanding and broadly-based international consensus on most of the elements of a permanent status agreement. What has been lacking until now is the leadership and political will in the White House - under successive administrations - to bring the sides together and get them to stop playing games and wasting time, and at long last resolve remaining differences and come to an agreement. It is precisely that kind of leadership and political will that must be demonstrated now by President Obama. This requires the President to do the following:
1. Take ownership of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. President Obama must make clear that he is still personally invested in Israeli-Palestinian peace. He must explain to the American people and the world why a resolution of this conflict is vital to U.S. interests. This should include an articulation of the U.S. commitment to and vision for Israel's security - as a state living inside secure, recognized borders with peace agreements with its neighbors - alongside an articulation of the well-understood negative effects this continuing conflict has on U.S. interests in the region and beyond.
2. Lay out his vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace. President Obama must take the dramatic step of laying out his own vision for Israeli-Palestinian peace, and in sufficient detail that it cannot be ignored or dismissed by either of the parties, the international community, or domestic detractors. This should start with the articulation of permanent status parameters, consistent with longstanding U.S. policy that is well-known but has never been officially endorsed by any U.S. administration. These parameters must not be watered down in an effort to please either party; the time for constructive ambiguity - which has never proven constructive - has long passed. What are required today are positions that represent definitive markers for both Israelis and Palestinians. They must include:
• An explicit recognition of the June 4, 1967 border as the starting point for negotiations.
• An unequivocal embrace of equal (one-to-one) land swaps as the basis for an agreement regarding borders and settlements.
• An unambiguous declaration of the U.S. vision for West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem, respectively, as the capitals of Israel and Palestine, with the delineation of these capitals determined through negotiations.
• A clear articulation of the view that the implementation of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees into sovereign Israel must be limited by Israel's right to determine its character, and that an international mechanism to provide compensation for refugees will be established.
• A reiteration of the position that a negotiated agreement must address both Israeli and Palestinian security requirements, and U.S. support for a robust international role in guaranteeing mutually agreed-on security arrangements.
• A forthright definition of the end game: an agreement that definitively ends all claims and results in two politically and economically viable sovereign states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace within recognized borders, with security and contiguity, with their capitals in their respective parts of Jerusalem and with the character of each state determined by its citizens.
3. Explain how he plans to move forward. Laying down parameters is not enough; President Obama must make clear that he will remain engaged and is determined to see progress in the near term. This should include the announcement of a firm date for a presidential trip to the region as well as: plans for an international summit of heads of state, including leaders from the Arab and Muslim worlds, to be held by a specific date; plans to invite Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the White House; or some other initiative led personally by the President, not by a presidential envoy.
4. Get the international community on board. President Obama must make clear from the get-go that he views the international community as partners with a real role in implementing his vision of Israeli-Palestinian peace. Together, the U.S. and such partners can offer a powerful united front, making clear to Israeli and Palestinian leaders that this effort is serious.
5. Engage Israelis and Palestinians directly. President Obama must take ownership of the peace effort personally, making the dramatic gesture of addressing the Israeli and Palestinian peoples in the context of visits to Jerusalem and Ramallah. He must lay out for them the imperative of peace, the sacrifices necessary to achieve it, the immense benefits that will flow to both peoples from an historic settlement and the essential parameters for achieving an enduring settlement.
6. Refuse to be deterred by bogus domestic U.S. "political" considerations. The most pro-Israel U.S. President in history will not be the one who provides the most weapons to Israel or vetoes the most resolutions at the UN Security Council. It will be the President under whose leadership the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, allowing Israel to finally live within secure, internationally-recognized borders with its capital in Jewish Jerusalem recognized by the world. It will be the President who - by helping Israel make peace with the Palestinians - will pave the way for Israel to achieve peace and normal relations with the entire Arab world. President Obama must recognize that he earns no credit with the tiny segment of American Jews who oppose any realistic peace agreement by backing off from peace efforts. Indeed, more than two years of choosing to refrain from any lasting or meaningful pressure on Israel, while providing the current Israeli government unprecedented military, financial, and diplomatic support, has earned President Obama only disdain and demonization from peace opponents. Worse still, President Obama risks U.S. national security interests - including security and stability in the Middle East - by compromising his sensible, principled Middle East policy in a doomed effort to co-opt opponents.
7. Refuse to be deterred by bogus Israel and Palestinian domestic "political" considerations. US national security - in the Middle East and beyond - is linked to the credibility of U.S. efforts in the Israeli-Palestinian arena. Given this reality, President Obama cannot allow himself to be diverted by the internal politics of either side. If it seems sometimes that the U.S. wants peace more than the parties themselves, so be it. If the current Netanyahu coalition is unwilling to make peace on the basis of the parameters set out by President Obama, the Israeli people will be faced with real choice about what kind of government they want. If the Palestinian leadership cannot resolve the West Bank-Gaza schism, ways to work around that issue can be found. The Palestinian leadership has signaled that its drive for UN recognition can be postponed, if meaningful peace negotiations are underway.
8. Be resolute and remain personally engaged until an agreement is reached. The success or failure of the next U.S. peace effort, like past efforts, will be a function of President Obama's readiness, in no small measure, to bring pressure to bear and hold the parties accountable, and to remain engaged and resolute, even if things get tough. Simply stated, no peace effort can succeed, regardless of its specifics, unless President Obama musters the political will to get the parties to take him seriously. This can only happen if the President makes clear that Israeli-Palestinian peace is a key U.S. national security interest and a foreign policy priority, and that obstructing U.S. peace efforts will have tangible costs.
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Even though the Palestinian Authority gives the death penalty to a Palestinian who sells land to Jews, the fulfillment of end time Bible prophecy will not be stopped.
The Palestinian Authority has, for years, implemented the death penalty on Palestinians that have sold land or even been involved in an arrangement to sell land to the Jewish people. One of the Muslim judges involved with the Palestinian Authority has issued another warning and a reminder to the Palestinian people that Islamic law forbids the sale of property to Jews by Muslim people.
This report brings to mind several issues that have a connection to end time Bible prophecy. The Palestinian Authority, the governing body of the Palestinian people, has no authority to issue a death penalty but past experience show they can back up their warning and a number of Palestinians have been executed for selling property to Jews - evidence that the Palestinians, Edomites of history, all descendents of Esau, hate Jews (Genesis 27:40-41).
As it relates to the land that might be bought or sold - the land is God's land (Leviticus 25:23) and He has promised it to the Jewish people and those promises are contained within the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 15:18), the Land Covenant (Deuteronomy 30:1-9), and the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:17).
In the future, land owned by the Palestinians will not be sold to the Jews but instead given to them by God. Bible prophecy will be fulfilled.
The gods are all created by man's imagination. There was writings back in those ancient years. All that dogma was passed down from generation to generation unchanged by those with "perfect memory" to justify wrongful domination over other peoplea. (Neither is a Santa Claus even if books written by man claim that he does exist.) The people of Jewish faith are not entitled to anything more than the Palestinians (or others they seek to have unfair ruling power) who are also mislead(wrongly enslaved) by their Islam faith. Common people regardless of ethnic/religious background all eat, poop, hurt, have joy, suffer, and make babies, in the same ways. We need to accept, for all of everyone's well being that people, in general,have similar human feelings, and we all deserve the same respect that we want for ourselves. We here in the US did wrong when we took the now "our" land from the natives that then lived here. That is history and I leave it there. Lets just stop making other people suffer based on the lie that Jews are naturally entitled to more that the slob over there because I want his land. The god that his ancestors to choose create says that I am entitled to more than my fair share.
Let's just have Peace and let the gods do their own evil wars that really are nothing other than for the greedy elite's gain.
'Managing' the IL/Pal conflict doesn't work and is just wasting time and lives. UDI/Boundry/Ports-of-Entry/Move all willing Pals to Palestine/The 'ARC'/
Non-partisan, gov't-of-consensus/New England City, Town Gov't/UN Peacekeepers, Cops for a while/IDF and other Israeli forces raus!..When Palestine is recognized as a sovereign nation, 'discussions' between IL/Pal can occur. Israel can truly 'renew' itself as a 100% JEWISH [Orthodox/Conservative/observant] society--free of any troublesom/treasonable/ungreatful goyim--Yeah!..Aaron Allen...
It is absolutely ridiculous to believe any Bible prophesy that the Israelis are God's chosen people, which as an American activist I hear from shocked and uniformed people all the time. Those are old stories.
The reality is that while the US gives Israel millions of our tax dollars, that add up to billions for their military, Benjamin Netanyahu mocks us on one hand while systematically carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people on the other.
It is not up to the US to "solve the problem". We need to halt aid to Israel in any form, to begin a policy of BDS, boycott, divestment and sanction. Illinois has purchased $10 million in Israeli war bonds. Many states have. Do taxpayers know that? Probably not.
Even without US dollars, the IsraelI government has plenty of money and will continue to attempt to wipe out all Palestinians, until more and more Jewish citizens see the irony of it all, and call for peace.
I believe the APN statements are quite reasonable, especially in the face of the statements by Netanyahu that the Palestinian Authority must immediately shoose between peace with Israel and peace with Hamas, and even more so when this statement was issued immediately after the agreement between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority was announced and without waiting to see exactly what that agreement would mean for Israel or making any statements about how such an agreement could possibly be used by Israel in a constructive manner.
Immediately after this Foreign Minister Lieberman issued his own statement, which was predictably worse. His statement threatened to destroy the Palestinian Authority if it attempted to deal with Hamas or form a government with Hamas. But this sort of attitude only follows the path taken by the far right in Israel in such matters as the murder of the Jewish family and the problems with the Goldstone Report. This is that anyone who fails to bow down and kiss the dirt before the Likkud and the settlers is probably anti-semitic and guilty of blood libel and wishes to destroy the Jewish people. The question is whether they actually believe this garbage or not.
On the one hand they may be simply trying to make it hard intellectually and morally for anyone to argue against them in any way. On the other hand, many of them seem actually to believe this stuff, and we see an alliance building up between the far right in America and in Israel. I suppose it's nice that the Americans may have stopped accusing the Jews of killing Jesus, at least for a time. But they apparently still expect the Jews to all convert to Christianity before their messiah returns to save the good people and send the bad people to an eternal lake of fire. As the old saying goes, with friends like these etc.
But I have also heard and read some of the more right-wing Jews talking about Passover, and the passage of the Jewish people into the land of Israel. One such commentary said that the claim of the Jews to the entire Biblical land goes back to Israel and because of this completely renders any Palestinian claims to any of this land illegitimate. I won't go into this, I will just comment that the arguments and statements of the American far right and the Israeli far right lately are enough to turn my stomach. You can see some of their statements in the comments here. It seems to amount to, God gave the land of Israel to the Jews, but only if they followed his command to kill everybody who questioned this.
I think APN has a better idea.
I see were Obama will adress this pease plane
Israeli will reject it. Palistine if smart will acept it, and so guess the rest.
My guess is its a game of poker.