Israel, Palestinians Begin A Path To Peace

Bush Announces Two Sides Will Immediately Resume Negotiations To Create Palestinian State

(CBS/AP) 
Negotiating teams will hold their first session in the region in just two weeks, on Dec. 12, and Olmert and Abbas plan to continue one-on-one discussions they began earlier this year. In addition, many of the same nations and organizations attending Tuesday's conference will gather again on Dec. 17 in Paris to raise money for the perpetually cash-strapped Palestinians.

The bland language of the agreement released Tuesday reflected the difficulty of the task ahead. The document skirts the fundamental differences that have led to the collapse of all previous peace efforts: the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of disputed Jerusalem and the rights of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

The agreement also commits the United States to be an arbiter of whether both sides are living up to promises unfulfilled in the past, such as corralling militants and freezing construction of Jewish settlements. Israel has resisted outside monitoring.

"I had many good reasons not to come here," Olmert told diplomats including those from Arab states that do not recognize Israel. "Memory of failures in the near and distant past weighs heavy upon us."

Speaking in Hebrew, the Israeli leader decried "dreadful terrorism perpetrated by Palestinian" groups.

Abbas, speaking in Arabic, recited a familiar list of demands. These included calls for Israel to end the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that could be part of an eventual state called Palestine and to release some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

"Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other," Abbas said. "It is a joint interest for us and you."

"Peace and freedom is a right for us," he said, "just as peace and security is a right for you and us."

Olmert did promise that the negotiations will address all issues "which thus far have been evaded. We will not avoid any subject. While this will be an extremely difficult process for many of us, it is nevertheless inevitable."

For his part, Abbas made an impassioned appeal to Israelis to support the peace process, saying that war and terrorism "belong to the past."

The three leaders gripped hands and gave a stiff smile, then quickly left the conference. Hours of closed-door speeches about the importance and challenges of peace came next, part of the U.S. program to draw potential supporters and potential spoilers into one fold, but the leaders were not there to listen.

In a sign of the difficult road ahead, Abbas' speech was immediately rejected by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that stormed to power in the Gaza Strip in June, a month before Bush announced plans for the peace conference. Hamas now governs the tiny territory and roughly a third of the people on whose behalf Abbas would negotiate a state. Hamas has refused to drop its pledge for Israel's destruction, and the United States and Israel consider the group a terrorist organization.

Abbas "has no mandate to discuss, to agree, or to erase any word related to our rights," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in Gaza. "He is isolated (and) represents himself only."

Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters chanted "Death to America" in a Gaza City rally. The marchers, including women in black robes and full face veils, raised their index fingers heavenward in a sign of Islamic devotion, as they denounced the Annapolis conference as a sellout of Palestinian dreams.

In the face of such resistance, Arab support for a new peace process is deemed essential.

[countyboy21]

Hmm? Interesting "noseonurface" good writing!
Uh! "b-easy63" wow! that''s horrible! I guess that part of the country is filled with psychotic criminals!I get horrified just seeing the pictures & reading about it! "at least they don''t eat babies"?yet!

Well, It''s obvious 2 me that it will be a could day in "HELL" before I take the family on vacation there huh! Hmm! I''d be better of sending them 2 a sleep in with Hanibal Lector on lsd!

Well maybe something good will come of this! I just pre-ordered some nice "Casbah" blue jeans & t-shirts from that part of the country! delivery date is a little long though? 2031a.d. huh! I should still be a 34-32!
regards. Oh by the way !

Well, It''''s back 2 business as usual 4 this team! After months of negotiations.
Olmert buys a 2 week vacation trip 4 Abbas in the Bahamas!!yea baby!
Abbas buys a string bikini 4 Conaleeza, because Conaleeza is going on vacation with Abbas!
& President Bush gets stuck bailing the fall hay!
V.P. Cheneys office sends Abbas a complimentary assortment of Jack Daniels & country music 4 the beach!
& free tickets 2 the new "show & Go" strip club ''''n bath house in Jerusalem 4 Olmet''''s cabinet!

WOW!! ain''''t this great!!
regards!

P.s. maybe they will give the people that shoot those rockets into other peoples homes a job 2 support there families! "I''ll try not 2 hold my breath on that one! just mortgage my $190,000 home!

[dmhphils]

Did Moslems hate the Jews prior to 1948 or the Jews moving to "Palestine" or is their hatred a direct outgrowth of the Jews moving into those lands and claiming a right to them by dint of biblical history and a gifting by the UK and America?


Posted by b-easy63 at 06:09 AM : Nov 28, 2007
----------------------------------------------

Who cares......the point is that this is more about the Reformists muslims and the Jihadis.....and if the Jihadis win, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.

[b-easy63]

To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra!
Posted by noseonurface at 05:44 AM : Nov 28, 2007

Did Moslems hate the Jews prior to 1948 or the Jews moving to "Palestine" or is their hatred a direct outgrowth of the Jews moving into those lands and claiming a right to them by dint of biblical history and a gifting by the UK and America?

[dmhphils]

The Jihadis, the militant muslims, are basically Nazis in kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world.

To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra!

[dmhphils]

The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity etc.

[b-easy63]

It has been said that we have signed lease agreements with Iraq to establish U.S. bases ( permanent), just as we did in Europe after WWII. The writing is on the wall and the rest of the Middle-Eastern countries are reading it. Time to bring some type of stability to this unstable region.
Posted by Edward1975 at 12:22 AM : Nov 28, 2007

What makes this especially interesting is that in 2006, congress passed a bill that stated the US could NOT and would not build permanent bases in Iraq. So what now? Repeal of that law, or just sweep it under the rug? or like FISA and rendition--ignore the laws and pretend we can legally do whatever we like?

[tbweb]

" Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that... I want to tell you something very clear: Don''''t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it. "

- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 2001

Posted by USAyesterday at 03:19 AM : Nov 28, 2007,,,

Israel does have what seems to be an incredible amount of influence and power over the United States no matter the roots or reason for it that is hard to comprehend. I never understood how Israel was able to bomb the U.S. warship U.S.S. Liberty and get away with it, killing and injuring many American Sailors as the ships Captain sat on deck bleeding from his injuries looked on in dismay! Ultimately even this was swept under the rug.

[usayesterday]

" Every time we do something you tell me America will do this and will do that... I want to tell you something very clear: Don''t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it. "

- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, 2001

[usayesterday]

Here is a scary quote... it sent shivers up my spine when I read it!...


" We believe with absolute certitude that now, with the White House and Senate in our hands along with the Pentagon and the New York Times, the lives [of Arabs] do not count as much as our own. Their blood does not count as much as our blood. We believe with absolute certitude that now, when we have AIPAC [the Israel lobby] and [Edgar] Bronfman and the Anti-Defamation League, we truly have the right to tell 400,000 people that in eight hours they must flee from their homes. And that we have the right to rain bombs on their villages and towns and populated areas. That we have the right to kill without any guilt. "

- Ari Shavit, Israeli journalist

[usayesterday]

Here is some interesting quotes regarding America versus Israel, (many of you need not convincing how dangerous our alliance with Israel truly is to peace... not only in the Middle East, but around the world)!

" I''ve never seen a President -- I don''t care who he is -- stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don''t have any idea what goes on. "

- Admiral Thomas Moorer, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff under Ronald Reagan