Obama to visit Israel with "urgent" agenda to restart Middle East peace talks with Palestinians
President Obama speaks during a bilateral meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the United Nations in New York City, Sept. 21, 2011. / Getty
JERUSALEM President Obama will bring an "urgent" peacemaking agenda to Israel on his upcoming visit, focusing on the region and the resumption of talks between Israel and the Palestinians, U.S. Ambassador Dan Shapiro said Wednesday.
Shapiro spoke a day after the White House announced Mr. Obama will visit Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in the spring, at the beginning of both his second term in office and also at the start of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's third term. Mr. Obama's previous term in office saw relations with Netanyahu deteriorate in part over failed talks with the Palestinians but also due to the two leaders' different world views. The visit will be Mr. Obama's first as president to the staunch U.S. ally.
Shapiro gave several interviews to Israeli media Wednesday morning with the same message.
"We have a very urgent agenda," Shapiro told Army radio. "We have a very complex agenda about Iran, Syria and the need to get Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, so it's important to begin as fast as possible," he said.
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The White House has not released the date of Mr. Obama's trip or details about his itinerary, but Israel's Channel 10 reported it had been scheduled for March 20. The visit raises expectations that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, which collapsed about four years ago, can be rekindled.
Palestinians refuse to resume the talks unless Israel stops building in areas they claim for a future state. Israel says all issues, including territorial disputes, must be resolved through negotiations. It has frequently called for talks to be restarted.
Shapiro said Mr. Obama will meet with the Palestinian leadership in the West Bank along with the King of Jordan, who has had a role in peacemaking efforts, during his visit.
"President Obama is not coming with conditions or demands. He is coming to confer with all our partners about problems and challenges we are dealing with in the region," Shapiro told Israel radio.
He said that Mr. Obama isn't "seeking a specific result" but wants to confer about ways of "bringing Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiation table."
Although Mr. Obama visited Israel and Jordan while running for president in 2008, he hasn't been back since, drawing intense criticism from some pro-Israel groups who have claimed he is insufficiently supportive of the United States' closest Mideast ally. Other top administration officials, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have visited, and Clinton's replacement, John Kerry, is expected to travel to Israel on his first Mideast trip.
Relations between Mr. Obama and Netanyahu have been strained during the past several years over differences of opinion and policy, and many observers have been surprised by the U.S. leader's decision to visit Israel so quickly in his second term.
Chemi Shalev, a U.S.-based commentator for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, suggested in an article Wednesday that Mr. Obama's visit could help Netanyahu politically by boosting his peace-making credentials with the moderate opposition.
As for Mr. Obama's impetus, Shalev notes the importance of the Israel-Palestinian conflict to the U.S. President's new Secretary of State, Kerry, who has pushed for a resolution -- or at least progress -- in the standoff as a way to try and ease the tensions in the entire Middle East region.
Shapiro shrugged off questions about relations between Mr. Obama and Netanyahu. "The personal chemistry between them is excellent. They know how to work together," he said.
President Obama will also discuss Iran's nuclear program, the danger of Syrian chemical weapons reaching militants and other regional issues, Shapiro said.
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So you want to see them all dead and yet you wonder why they teach their children to want to kill you Jewservant?
1. Identity and Citizenship
Law of Return (1950)
Grants right of immigration to Jews born anywhere in the world. Amended in 1970 to extend this right to "a child and a grandchild of a Jew, the spouse of a Jew, the spouse of a child of a Jew and the spouse of a grandchild of a Jew." A "Jew" is defined as "a person who was born of a Jewish mother or has become converted to Judaism and who is not a member of another religion."
Non-Jewish native-born Palestinians - most importantly those who fled during the Zionist massacres in 1947 and 1948 - are in most cases prevented from returning.
Nationality (/Citizenship) Law (1952)
Confers automatic citizenship upon all who immigrate under the Law of Return. Non-Jews - including native-born Palestinians - must prove residency and pass other tests; citizenship is granted at the discretion of the Minister of the Interior.
Under the new interim policy for "family unification" passed by the Israeli Cabinet in 2002, and made part of the Nationality and Entry into Israel Law by the Knesset in 2003, a discriminatory system has been put in place preventing applications for residency or citizenship from Palestinian spouses of Israeli citizens.
Population Registry Law (1965)
Requires all residents of Israel to register their nationality - Jewish, Arab, Druze - with the Population Registry and to obtain an identity card carrying this information.
Identity Card (Possession and Presentation) Law (1982)
Residents must carry identity cards at all times and present them to "senior police officers, to the heads of local authorities, or to police officers or soldiers on duty when requested to do so."
2. Land
Absentee Property Law (1950)
Classifies the personal property of Palestinians who fled during the Zionist terror campaign of 1947/48 as "absentee property" and places it within the power of the Custodian of Absentee Property. According to the law, even the property of Palestinians who are present within the newly created state of Israel, but are not physically present on their property ("internal refugees"), becomes "absentee property." This creates the category of "present absentees."
Land Acquisition (Validity of Acts and Compensation) Law (1953)
Confiscates the land of more than 400 Palestinian villages; "validates" retroactively their use for military purposes and for Jewish settlements.
Development Authority (Transfer of Property Law) (1950)
Transfers confiscated Palestinian villages and private property to the Development Authority, which is empowered to dispose of it in the interests of the State, giving priority to the Jewish National Fund - a Zionist organization aimed at settling Jewish immigrants to Israel. Both the JNF and the Jewish Agency - organizations that act exclusively in the interest of Jews - take on the status of quasi-governmental organizations within the framework of the Development Authority Law.
World Zionist Organization Jewish Agency (Status) Law (1952)
Establishes the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency as organizations with governmental status in fulfilling Zionist objectives - the immigration and settlement of Jews in Palestine.
National Planning and Building Law (1965)
Creates a system of discriminatory zoning that freezes existing Arab villages while providing for the expansion of Jewish settlements. The law also re-classifies a large number of Arab villages as "non-residential" creating the "unrecognized villages." These villages do not receive basic municipal services such as water and electricity; all buildings are threatened with demolition orders.
Land Acquisition in the Negev (Peace Treaty with Egypt) Law (1980)
Seizes thousands of dunums of land from Bedouins for the purpose of expanding Jewish settlements.
Section 7A(1) of the Basic Law: The Knesset (1958), passed in 1985
Bars a list of candidates from participation in elections to the Knesset "if its aims or actions, expressly or by implication" deny "the existence of the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish people."
The Law of Political Parties (1992)
Bars the Registrar of Political Parties from registering a political party if it denies "the existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic State."
In 2002 both Section 7A(1) of the Basic Law: the Knesset and the Law of Political Parties were amended further to bar those whose goals or actions, directly or indirectly, "support armed struggle of an enemy state or of a terror organization, against the State of Israel." These amendments were added expressly to curtail the political participation of Palestinian Arabs within Israel - such as Azmi Bishara - who have expressed solidarity with Palestinians resisting military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
4. Judicial Practice: Equal Protection Cases
The Israeli courts - guided by the Supreme Court - have consistently decided that discrimination between Arabs and Jews is legitimate based on the founding principles of Israel as a state for the Jewish people; "nationality" is considered a legitimate basis for discrimination.
In the State of Israel vs. Ashgoyev (1988), an Israeli settler was convicted by the Tel Aviv District Court of shooting a Palestinian child. The judge sentenced him to a suspended jail term of six months and community service. When challenged by critics, the trial judge, Uri Shtruzman, said: "It is wrong to demand in the name of equality, equal bearing and equal sentences to two offenders who have different nationalities who break the laws of the State. The sentence that deters the one and his audience, does not deter the other and his community."
Think of it like Atiken Skywalker turning to the dark side of the force, same thing and good riddance!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
After reading this I think I finally understand who Chucky's little brain works. Terrorism and Star Wars. AWESOME connection there Chuckster. And its Anakin not Atiken.
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Don't get your hopes up. Israel wants land and the slow elimintion of the Palestinians, not peace.
They are like two children in a sandbox (appropriate pun?) where one child has a shovel and pail and the other one a toy truck. The truck owner wants to play with the pail and shovel but is not willing to share the truck with the other child. The child who has the pail and shovel says he is willing to share but only if he gets to play with the toy truck. Neither side is willing to give an inch, either to solve the problem or be content with what each has.
Patheticn when you think that it wouldn't hurt to compromise thus allowing two societies to coexist in realtive peace.
The partition of palestine was orchestrated by Great Britian and really did not have an option for the Palestinians to agree or not agree.
At the time (end of WW II) the world was a bit different then it is today with Great Britian being then a world power. And as such a power they really did not need nor want to consult Palestine to get their approval. Oh, they might have asked them just to be "officially correct" but not a real part of the decision to partition. So, no the Palestinians didn't share.
Think about this as an example: France and Vietnam after WWII. Did the Vietnamese have a say as to whether or not they wanted France back into their country? Did they want to be a part of French Indochina again? As with Palestine they also didn't have a voice in the decision. It was forced upon them.
________________________
Technically, you are right that there was no seat at the League of Nations or the United Nations for "Palestine" or "Israel" or what we now call "the Palestinians (of the West Bank (and Gaza))". But those "Palestinians" did have an option to agree or not. And they chose to not agree.
The Partition of Palestine called for the creation of one country as a Jewish homeland and another for the Arab population. On that day, the Jewish leaders declared their nation to be "Israel". On that day, Arab leaders in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon invaded the land that partition plan set side for Arabs, on their way to battle with Israel. When the fighting stopped (the Green Line - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_Armistice_Agreements), those Arab nations still held that land the Partition Plan envisioned for a Palestinian state.
Similarly, after the 1967 war in which that land from the original partition plan was further lost to Israel, Arab leaders declared "the Khartoum Resolution" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum_Resolution).
"The Palestinians" have regularly gone to those same Arab leaders for "consultations" at every turn of conversations and negotiations with Israeli governments. Their choice was "the Three Nos" until Sadat of Egypt (assassinated as a result) and later Hussein I of Jordan said "peace". Palestinians can similarly choose at anytime they wish, but have yet to do so.