U.S. Continues Push For Palestinian State

(CBS/AP)  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised on Tuesday to work with the incoming Israeli government, but delivered a clear message that could put her at odds with the country's next leader: Movement toward the establishment of a Palestinian state is "inescapable."

At the same time, Clinton said she would not dictate orders to Israel, saying the Jewish state would determine its interests.

She also pledged "unrelenting" support for Israel's security.

Clinton is making her first visit to the region as secretary of state during a transition period in Israel.

Prior to her meeting with prime minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu, she spoke alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, at which time she said the U.S. was "vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution."

Clinton stressed the U.S.'s "unrelenting" commitment to Israel's security and said rocket fire at Israel from militants in Gaza "must stop."

"There is no doubt that any nation, including Israel, cannot stand idly by while its territory and people are subjected to rocket attacks," she said, criticizing the rocket fire as "cynical."

Clinton met with Netanyahu at Jersualem's King David hotel. Afterwards Netanyahu said the two had "a very constructive meeting.

"We spoke at length about the problems in our region, about Iran, about forging a path towards peace with the Palestinians, about the need to ensure that we have security, peace and prosperity in our region," he said.

CBS News correspondent Robert Berger reports that, even with the shift in the Likud Party's stance on peace talks, it may be hard for the U.S. and Israel to find common ground, as Netanyahu still opposes Palestinian statehood.

He has suggested in the past he would instead invest in the Palestinian economy while continuing Israel's military occupation of the West Bank indefinitely.

Speaking to the press Tuesday, Clinton lamented that President Barack Obama's attempts to reach out to Iran have so far been unsuccessful. The U.S. and Israel accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons and supporting anti-Israel militant groups.

Clinton, seeking to calm her Israeli hosts, said diplomacy should not be confused with softness.

"When we talk about engagement with Iran, do not be in any way confused, our goal remains the same: to dissuade and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and continuing to fund terrorism," she said. "Whatever we do will be done thoughtfully in consultation with our friends and Israel, most particularly Israel."

Senior Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, told Clinton that Israel does not oppose Washington's overtures to Iran. However, they said they were skeptical about Iran's intentions and urged the U.S. to set a deadline for Iran to respond positively. Israel fears Iran will use American engagement to buy time to develop nuclear weapons.

When asked about Netanyahu, she acknowledged the possibility of disagreements with any Israeli government and made clear the U.S. will push forward with its efforts to forge a peace deal that includes the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

"The United States will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way," she said. "The inevitability of working toward a two state-solution is inescapable."

Netanyahu characterized his talks with Clinton as "deep and important and good" and said the two agreed to meet again once a new Israeli government is formed.

Netanyahu, leader of the hardline Likud Party, is putting together a new coalition government after right-wing and Orthodox Jewish parties won a majority of seats in last month's Israeli parliamentary election. He is expected to be sworn in as prime minister within weeks.

At present, it appears his most likely government will be a narrow alliance of hard-line and Orthodox parties opposed to significant concessions for peace.

Netanyahu has several weeks to form a new governing coalition. His attempts to bring Livni, his centrist rival, into a broad coalition government have failed so far, largely because of Netanyahu's refusal to embrace Livni's call for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

His criticism of U.S.-led Mideast peace talks during the recent election campaign has raised fears that his government could clash with the Obama administration.

But ahead of his meeting with Clinton, Netanyahu showed signs of backing off his previous pledges to abandon the current round of peace talks, launched in November 2007 at a U.S.-hosted summit.

(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner )

(left: Clinton rekindles the Eternal Flame in the Hall of Remembrance during a visit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Tuesday March 3, 2009.)

On Wednesday, Clinton will call on Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.

Clinton arrived in Jerusalem Monday evening from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik, where she pledged $900 million in U.S. aid at an international donor conference for rebuilding the Gaza Strip after Israel's recent offensive against its Hamas rulers. In pledging the money, Clinton vowed that none of the funds would make it into the hands of Hamas militants.

Speaking at the Sharm el-Sheikh conference, Clinton said the Obama administration was committed to pushing intensively to find a way for Israelis and Palestinians to exist peacefully in separate states, and called for urgent action to forge a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace.

[philabias]

YEA ANOTHER TERRORIST STATE
JUST WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS
IF ISRAEL WOULD JUST FINISH WHAT THEY START

[dmhphils]

"There is no doubt that any nation, including Israel, cannot stand idly by while its territory and people are subjected to rocket attacks," she said, criticizing the rocket fire as "cynical."

[ajmarine2]

Tucker,

Again, it is Hi and Bye.

I have to go.

Good to see you again and don't stay gone so long.

Have a good night.

Live Long and Prosper.

[singinrick09]

If Obama manages a 7-year peace deal between the Muslim Arabs and Israel, then it's clear who he indeed is.

[singinrick09]

The only effective long term solution is to nuke Jerusalem.

Posted by tuckerndfw at 7:45 PM : Mar 3, 2009

Spoken like a good Muslim

[ajmarine2]

Posted by ajmarine2 at 7:55 PM : Mar 3, 2009

What's up, you old Jarhead?

Posted by tuckerndfw at 8:05 PM : Mar 3, 2009



I'm good bro, how about you?

I haven't seen you since before the elections and people have been asking about you.


As far as nuking Israel, if it will bring peace to the Middle East, go for it. I am way past caring who win this stupid fight.


Oh, by the way, got some great new pictures taken last week.

[ajmarine2]

The only effective long term solution is to nuke Jerusalem.

Posted by tuckerndfw at 7:45 PM : Mar 3, 2009



What's the matter Dogface,.....wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning? Got some aggressions you want to work out?

[singinrick09]

The USA must stop our support of Israel
or continue to waste time and money.

Please stop pouring my tax dollars down the rat hole of Israel!
Posted by dafras

Dafras, it is abundantly clear that you are a Muslim propagandist posting on these American news media message forums trying to get people to listen to your garbage. You post the SAME THING on these forums every day, proving that your imam hasn't provided you with any more propaganda material in quite awhile.

NOBODY is going to buy into your propaganda anti-Israel lies, got it? NOBODY with morals and logic, that is.

[singinrick09]

The facts are as follows based on UN records:

1. Palestine was a British invention after WWI and never existed as an independent state. Most of this "Palestine" is called Jordan today.

2. The small number of people (700,000) occupied the entire Palestine Mandate which included Israel, the West Bank, Golon Heights, Gaza and Jordan today. Most of the Arab populations lived East of the Jordan River.

3. The common usage of the word "Palestinian" refers to people who live in Palestine: Arabs (a "mixed race of Arabic speaking peoples"), Bedouins, Christians, Druze, and Jews.

4. Under Muslim rule the region had been reduced to a barren wasteland. Jews were the only people that produced anything causing resentment from the masses of illiterate and poverty-ridden Arabs. Jews never held any political power until 1948.

5. The British didn't want a Jewish majority in the region. This led in later years to a policy of systematically reduced immigration quotas, and indirectly to the death of millions of Jewish refugees in Europe twenty some years later. The British would illegally partition the region into Jordan, (forbidding Jews from living there) then stripped off the Golon Heights giving that to France and Syria. Calling the remainder "Palestine" then flooding it with outside Arabs.

6. Constant agitation by outside Arabs and others leading to riots and murders of Jews. The British did nothing to stop this. Immigration and travel restrictions were almost universally applied only to Jews, no restriction was placed on Arab immigration to help flood the region with Arabs the British favored. Jews were the only economic success even with all of this going on.

7. Whenever there were Arab riots, Jewish immigration was restricted. This was the beginning of the British Policy of Appeasement, and the success of terrorism. The success of terrorism goes on today and appeasement still fails today. When will they ever learn?

8. All lands acquired by Jews were purchased, not taken according to Arafat's Nazi Uncle in 1937 and the British. Haj Amin al-Husseini was a Nazi war criminal wanted in Yugoslavia and mixed Nazi ideology into Islam. Arafat in fact wasn't even a Palestinian, but was born, raised, and educated in Egypt. According to Forbes, his estate is estimated to be worth over $300 million while he locked his own people into concentration camps.

9. Between 1950 and 1967 when Jordan and Egypt annexed the West Bank and Gaza, they flooded the area with more Arabs. Even today most Arabs in the West Bank, etc. hold Jordanian passports and Jordanian citizenship. After 1967 Jordan/Egypt relinquished claims to the area then started to scream for a second Palestinian state in addition to the first Palestinian State of Jordan. Before that, they claimed Palestine meant land of the Jews.

10. Even with immigration from Russia in the 1990's, the majority of Israelis are descended from Arab, Asian, and African Jews including two-thirds of the 870,000 Arab Jews expelled from surrounding Arab Nazi states. Druze, Bedouins, Christians, and some Arabs sided with the Jews in 1948 and serve in the Israeli Army today. The Israeli military has three Arab generals.

11. Why did the British do this? It's about oil, stupid! Britian didn't give a darn about Arabs or Jews. Just like America today ignores Saudi terrorism it's still about oil.

[singinrick09]

The Palestinian people [do] not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.

For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan. (PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein, March 31, 1977, interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw.)