Mahmoud Abbas: If talks fail over settlements, only Israel will be to blame

Israel can only move to the right from here. Peace is not possible with Palestinians but peace is possible without Palestinians. They will eventually all be ejected from Israel. They can have a state in Jordan or Lebanon but not in Israel. Palestinians will never know happiness in Israel.

Abbas and the Quartet have no rights whatsover to impose the 1967 borders on Israel because 1)the 1967 borders were set between Israel and Jordan, Egypt and Syria, not with a hypotetical Palestinian state 2) The Palestinians and their representative in the UN, Hussein Trikki, never claimed the territories nor East Jerusalem when they were occupied by Jordan. Why do they think they have the right to claim the 1967 as a border now?

Barack Obama's promise to Muslim community in Cairo, the capital of Egypt was the cause of current Israel's problem. Muslims all over the world were already integrated in our community but Obama came and empowered them with much requests. He made a promise for this and that without knowing the consequences of all those promises. Palestinians now ask for more concessions without giving anything. Well, it is certain that when Obama is voted out of office in the next USA election, things will no-longer be the same, both for Palestinians and Israelis as Iran is bent in having nuclear weapon. I suspect that there will be wars plus wars plus wars all over the Middle East as this region love war.

(United Nations) Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. Resolution 242, adopted after the Six-Day War in 1967, set out criteria for peace-making by the parties (to the conflict); Resolution 338, passed after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, makes resolution 242 legally binding and orders the parties to carry out its terms forthwith. Unfortunately, confusion reigns, even in high places, about what those resolutions require. (Since 1967) Arab states have pretended that the two resolutions are "ambiguous" and can be interpreted to suit their desires. And some Europeans (Russian) and even American officials have cynically allowed Arab spokesman to delude themselves and their people ­ to say nothing of Western public opinion ­ about what the resolutions mean. It is common even for American journalists to write that Resolution 242 is "deliberately ambiguous," as if the parties are equally free to rely on their own reading of its key provisions. Nothing could be further from the truth. Resolution 242, which as Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs between 1966 and 1969, I helped produce, calls on the parties to make peace and allows Israel to administer the territories it occupied in 1967 until " a just and lasting peace in the Middle East" is achieved. When such a peace is made, Israel is required to withdraw its armed forces "from territories" it occupied during the Six-Day War ­ not from "the" territories, nor from "all" the territories, but some of the territories, which included the Sinai Desert, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Five-and-a-half months of vehement public diplomacy made it perfectly clear what the missing definite article in Resolution 242 means. Ingeniously drafted resolutions calling for withdrawals from "all" the territories were defeated in the Security Council and the General Assembly. Speaker after speaker made it explicit that Israel was not to be forced back to the "fragile" and "vulnerable" Armistice Demarcation Lines, but should retire once peace was made to what Resolution 242 called "secure and recognized" boundaries agreed to by the parties. In negotiating such agreement, the parties should take into account, among other factors, security considerations, access to the international waterways of the region, and, of course, their respective legal claims. Resolution 242 built on the text of the Armistice Agreements of 1949, which provided (except in the case of Lebanon) that the Armistice Demarcation Lines separating the military forces were "not to be construed in any sense" as political or territorial boundaries, and that "no provision" of the Armistice Agreements "shall in any way prejudice the right, claims, and positions" of the parties "in the ultimate peaceful settlement of the Palestine problem." In making peace with Egypt in 1979, Israel withdraw from the entire Sinai, which had never been part of the British Mandate …. Resolution 242 leaves the issue of dividing the occupied areas between Israel and its neighbors entirely to the agreement of the parties in accordance with the principles it sets out. It was, however, negotiated with full realization that the problem of establishing "a secure and recognized" boundary between Israel and Jordan would be the thorniest issue of the peace making process. The heated question of Israel settlements in the West Bank during the occupation period should be viewed in this perspective. The British Mandate recognized the right of the Jewish People to "close settlement" in the whole of the Mandated territory. It was provided that local conditions might require Great Britain to "postpone" or "withhold" Jewish settlement in what is now Jordan. This was done in 1922. But the Jewish right of settlement in Palestine, west of the Jordan River, that is in Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, was made unassailable.

Get on with the talks.

Food for thought. Why are we sending these uppity primitives electricity?

Why are Israelis settling into the westbank?

Stop wasting all your potential in a useless never ending war. its time for peace, or do you still dont get it?

The longer Zionism continues without solving the problem of the Palestinian people, whose land was displaced so that Zionism could exist, the more it appears obvious that Zionism is an abject failure.

The following is part of a speech given by the late Mr. Yitzhaq Rabin - the Prince of Peace, dubbed by many around the world - given before the Knesset, Israel's parliament, in October 1995, talking about the shape of a peace agreement as he envisioned it, and that was before the way Israel was attacked from the West Bank, 2000 and after the intensifications of attacks on Israel from Gaza, having left to territory in 2005... 1) Jerusalem will remain united under Israel's sovereignty and will also include suburbs such as Giv'at Zeev and Ma'aleh Adumim. 2) The major Jewish settlement blocs will be part of the sovereign state of Israel. 3) The Jordan Valley must be viewed in the widest possible way of its definition and it too will remain under Israel rule. 4) The future Palestinian state will be demilitarized and its border passes and skies will remain under Israel's control. This contour is more strict than Mr. Netanjahu is likely to propose, and Rabin was a leader of the left of center Labor party. Furthermore, the overwhelming majority of Israel citizens, right, left and center, would agree with Rabin's AND Netanjahu's views of the shape of a future Muslim-Arab state in the regions of Samaria and Judeah. So, when we think of the details of an accommodation of peaceful coexistence between Arab and Jew, between the Muslim-Arab world and the nation-state of the Jewish people, Israel, let us do so with open eyes, ears, mind and heart, shall we...??

abbas should stop making speeches and should start negotiating.

That's all we are going to get. I don't think much will come out of these talks. Just book mark these words and let me know I am right few months from now. Thanks

The Arab argument, which many intellectuals find seductive in its simplicity, rests on two interrelated fabrications: that around 1900 the Jews, an alien European people, colonized an Arab land, and that in 1948 and again in 1967, Israelis aggressively occupied this land, driving its native population out. Justice therefore demands, Arab propagandists claim, that the land be restored to its original owners, and that the Jewish aggressors be punished and repulsed. Yet the fact is that Arabs never owned significant parts of land in Palestine as private property, nor did they control it as a distinct national entity. Following the Jews' exile by the Romans and the destruction of Judea's elaborate agricultural infrastructure (which was further despoiled by repeated conquests, not least by the Arab one), much of the country became unsuitable for habitation. The Arab conquerors settled, farmed and established private property rights (mostly squatters' rights) over only a tiny percent of Palestine. The rest became desert or malaria-infested swamps. After the Ottomans evicted the Arabs in 1517, the largely desolate country became the sultan's property. In 1919, the British mandatory government that undertook to build a Jewish national home inherited Turkish title to more than 95 percent of the land. A similar percentage of the land in Israel and the "West Bank" is still government owned. During an 1867 visit to Palestine, Mark Twain observed: "Of all the lands there are for dismal scenery Palestine must be the prince. The hills barren and dull, the valleys unsightly deserts [inhabited by] swarms of beggars with ghastly sores and malformations. Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes..." Jewish settlement, which made the country habitable, again, did not violate, by and large, any Arab individual property rights. Most Jewish land was acquired. Only tiny private areas were requisitioned, against compensation, for security and public needs. As for national rights, they were offered under the 1947 United Nations partition plan, which would have granted Arab sovereignty over parts of Palestine. However, those rights were forfeited when they rejected partition and launched a genocidal war against Israel, trying to destroy it with help from seven Arab armies. After the war, the Palestinian Arabs never attempted to establish an independent state in their allotted territory. They cooperated with its unilateral annexation by Jordan, becoming part of its political system. It was Jordan, then, not an imagined "Palestine," that lost the West Bank after attacking Israel. The claim that Israel occupied Palestinian lands is therefore totally baseless. So is the claim that the Palestinians are waging a war of liberation designed to overthrow Israeli occupation. Since more than 90 percent of all Palestinian Arabs now live under the Palestinian Authority's jurisdiction, they are not occupied any longer, though they do suffer severe restrictions as a result of the war they declared on Israel and their widespread use of terror. In brief, the Palestinians are not fighting for the return of "Palestinian lands," private or national, but for the possession of lands that were Turkish or British in the past. Facts do no impress Arab propagandists and their Western sympathizers. The BBC will continue undermining Israel and spouting Hanan Ashrawi's lies. But facts matter to the fair-minded. For their sake, and ours, we must keep repeating the truth and dispelling Arab lies.

Abbas should just concentrate on getting a borders agreed. Anything Israel built can be bulldozed. Bibi won't allow Jews to live among Palestinians without the IDF. He'll remove them and bulldoze their houses. The painful concessions are for settlers, not politicians to make. Evidence Sinai and Gaza. Focus on borders and back rent.

Otherwise Israel will have to revert to plan B which is stalling the talks by starting a new war on Lebanon or something of the like. But do not worry, it will be done in such a way that Hezbollah will be blamed for it, so your face will be safe.

The freeze was implemented 10 months ago and is going to expire. Netanyahu doesn't have the votes to extend it even it he thought it justified. Abbas can stand on the train tracks and warn the train that it is responsible, but the argument isn't going to work with any one rational. He wasted 10 months and there is no reason to let him waste even one more.

Arabs:A temporary agreement that will give them real estate assets lost when they attacked Israel and in return giving only a vague paper with open issues for conflict continuation And later to destroy Israel Israel:A long lasting peace for the Jewish state leaving peacefully along the Arab world forever The Arabs refuse to recognize that Jews are entitled to their sovereign country-Israel America can lead the free world to create the conditions for peace But peace cannot be imposed by foreign powers The only way peace can happen is if Arab leaders take a real peace stand publically and work to this goal in Arab countries and Arab language The Arab leaders will stop using the double language 1:The lying language to the infidels in the west media masking their Israel destructions narrative 2;The truth language to the believers (Muslims) in Arabic describing the destroy Israel stage strategy

Historically, lasting peace follows resounding military victories. The resounding defeat of Germany and Japan, by the Allies in WW II, brought generations of peace in Europe and Asia with no end in sight. Peace will never come through yet another dangerous treaty with the P.A. Peace can only come through resounding Israeli victory over "Palestinians", with no concessions. "Palestinians" are mortal enemies, who must leave our land. This may not be politically correct to say, but it is the truth. Deep down inside, most of us know it.

There is no Israeli leadership that is capable of removing 100,000 Israelis from their West Bank homes. The evacuation of 8,100 Israelis from Gaza in 2005 required 55,000 IDF [Israel Defense Forces] troops; the largest Israeli military operation since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Rocket attacks from Gaza increased dramatically after Israel withdrew and the number of U.N. resolutions was. Zero! When Israel struck back at Hamas, the "international community" was theatrically appalled even though the allies destroyed Hamburg, Dresden and other German cities for a similar reason.

Israel will not offer any sort of deal the Palestinians can stomach unless the US first turns its back on Israel. When the military aid and the extraordinary diplomatic support stop Israel will finally start to get interested in a just settlement. Obama is simply setting the stage. At the end of the one year time limit, the talks will be declared a failure and Israel will have the blame. The US public will be better prepared for withdrawal of US support. Israel will see an end of US aid and support, and will see its goods and services embargoed in Europe. Israel will act tough for a while, but Israel will have to eventually fold. Then the real peace talks can start.

Abbas is predicting the talks will fail before they even start. And of course, it's Israel's fault.

haaretz, will not print my post because I am israeli and pro israel. i love my home and love everything jewish and israeli. haaretz will censor me because of that. haaretz will only print anti israel and anti zionist stories because it fuels thier agenda which follows the arabs agenda of destroying my home. haaretz is NOT and israeli national paper. haaretz IS german owned and anti israel. for once, haaretz print a story not biased against your own. this story makes only israel look bad. riddle me this haaretz... what will abbas put on the table? how about recognition of a jewish israel. how about agree that the right of return will not work. all his refugees must live under his ruloe in the WB. Come on haaretz show this israeli you are actually not biased. off to work now. going to get my copy if Israel Hiyom. Going to read and and enjoy JPOST and YNet.... 2 true Israeli papers... well 3 if you caount Hebrew Lanuguage Israel Hiyom. Bye anti israel and german owned Haaretz. We will see if you are truly israeli and not anti semitic/israel trash in the future.

This dummy doesn't have anything better to say, so he incites.

Palestinian Muslims are tools for Arab leaders securing their own security.

The settlements and construction are items for negotiation. Abbas knows this. He is just looking for a way to once again walk away from the peace table. I hope President Obama makes good on his threat to cut all funding to the PA should Abbas walk away once again.

but west bank is palestine so take your asses back over the green line

in every society they've ever been in, in every nation, in every decade, in every millennium, one thing hasn't changed: jews are motivated by greed. if abbas thinks that they'll willingly give up anything, he is delusional. they won't stop until all of "greater israel" is theirs. and then they'll still continue their colonizing. i commend him for the effort, but really... just give up.

For the last year both sides have been maneuvering to put the other side at blame for the failure. The hopelessly weak side, the Palestinians, understood that there was no chance of peace talks succeeding as soon as Obama capitulated to Netanyahu. The party with overwhelming power, Israel, has had to resort to any and ever device to displace it's intransigence. The final maneuvers involved Netanyahu attempting to move the middle-man - the USA - out of negotiations and Abbas trying to delay until Netanyahu's partial 'settlement freeze' was due to end. Now Netanyahu has to choose between bringing down his coalition by extending the settlement freeze, while Abbas will be given the demand to recognize Israel as a "Jewish State' where Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have no legal right to remain there. Needless to say, these conditions are both impossible. Netanyahu will not surrender power; and Abbas will not surrender Palestine to Hamas.

Before the talks begin we understand both sides will be trying to apply pressure to supposedly put them in a better position on Sept. 2nd. What we have seen so far is "all cards on the table." By Abbas; While Natanyahu is only speaking in generalities "peace for generations.." The chatter luckily provides fodder for the media and pundits. In reality it does not amount to much nor does it predict future outcomes. What the parties are not saying is what maps are they carrying with them to Washington?

No earthly man would turn down a billion dollars to sell out his people. His descendants would be guaranteed more than all the other corrupt Arab leaders have ever managed to hide in laundered bank accounts.

the Palestinians will not be blamed if you do not stop throwing residents out of their homes, demolishing homes and building on stolen land. Quite simple and just really, there is no way out for Israel to argue against this and continue to look like a partner for peace. We all wait to see Israels true colours this time round. Peace or the eventual destruction of the Zionist state...your choice!

.... only Israel will be to blame." Wow! How is that for a precondition?

Unqualifiable.

"We understand Israel's need for security, but it is not an excuse to expand settlements and steal lands."... how damn simple and straight forward the truth is!!!

The fate of the land will be decided in the negotiations, a half finished community center or school aren't going to change the outcome in the one year's negotiations. Either it stays in Israeli ownership, or the Palestinians get free buildings (if they don't wreck it like the Green houses in Gaza). The "continued daily land grab" makes it sound like the buildings are mile sized constructs that constantly move the fence...shish

Israel doesn't need an excuse to resume development in East Jerusalem, Samaria and Judea. The disputed territories are no less Israel's than they are the Palestinians' until an agreement says otherwise. If anything, Israel needs the Palestinians to give her a good reason to stop.

the whole world knows this.

whose main theme was that Nazis and Zionist Jews were allies and collaborators therefore the Holocaust had never occurred. He should worry about his side of the talks i.e. who will be blamed if Pals stick to their usual myopic position on the return of refugees, control of the Temple Mount and jurisdiction over Jerusalem and major Jewish settlements.

Neither Abbas nor Netanyahu can or will make any final agreements,relative to all or any the issues on the table.The best and necessary thing to look for on the September meeting at this point in time is calm and conciliatory tones from both sides.

Israel is a Jewish country like it or leave it.. Land of the Herbrews, Jews, Israeli's, ect.... Not Arbia.

Israel will never find a best partner for peace than Abbas. If negotiations fail this time, Israel will be to blame for sure. And if this happen, then, it will be clear that Israel prefers to live in isolation, looking for wars, embarassing America, humilliating the Palestinians. Then, if this is the path, the Zionist project would have been a mistake since its inception.

Abbas:" If talks fail over settlements only Israel will be to blame " You're a mouse. You did nothing for the whole period when there was a freeze (10 months) a) Now you're finding an excuse to squirm your way out because Hamas is threatening you. You are no leader at all.You're a cry-baby. b) Arab League Chief.: Peace talks will likely be unsuccessful. You see the pattern: These two clowns are going to torpedo the talks & then blame Israel. The stage is set & you already have 3 actors;two clowns & one bitter actor who also agrees with the first two.he's Erekat the chief whip.He want's the two cronies to fail so that he can become top dog,

Israel will be held responsible for the break down of direct jokes. This is true, not because I or Abbas says it, but because of -- what people in the legal profession call -- circumstantial evidence. As much as I hate to reference another commenter, for the sake of clarity, I shall: It's very obvious what Israel has to lose from the establishment of a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, but what does it have to gain from it? Or, what does Israel have to lose if the direct jokes fail?... in other words, where's the accountability? People of wisdom know that when the hunky-dory continues, there is no incentive to change the status quo. I listened to a lecture in the past, where the lecturer spoke of the need of Israel to suffer a major military defeat for it to be grounded... I can understand his point of view.

"we understand Israel's need for security, as well as our own such need. But the need for security is not an excuse to expand settlements and steal land." Is there something Bibi doesn't understand about this?

If Abbas accepts any fake freeze the entire world will assume he is bought out. The parameters are set. Let the talks begin. Dennis Ross has an chance to make history. I hope he delivers.

Where was the Palestinian willingness to negotiate for almost the past year? Now they wake up and start setting conditions again? As always, the Palestinians dance the sidestep in an attempt to avoid having to accept Israel's existence and permanence. Settlements (which can be taken apart as part of a peace agreement) are not the issue. Negotiating with the understanding that Israel will still be there after a peace agreement is signed is. That's clearly something the Pals are still not ready for 62 years into the conflict. But Israel is at fault, of course.

Nearly every Palestinian fraction besides the PLO Executive Committee and Abbass' Fatah have either rejected or expressed strong concerns about the upcoming talks especially as the Quartet document outlining guidelines, released the day Obama issues formal invitations to Israel and, was rejected by the White House. In fact thus far it would appear that the Quartet has been excluded form the talks! But this is not reported in the Israli press, not even by Haaretz..

If you will just enter seriously into talks with the intent of actually agreeing on borders and security, building will be a non-issue. Whatever is on the Israeli side of the agreed-upon border will be Israel, whatever is on the Palestinian side of the agreed-upon border will be Palestinian. You just might stand to gain. Try it. You might like it!

When the Palestinians again refuse to change their charter and recognize the State of Israel? Will Abbas, with the help of Haaretz, find a way to blame Netanyahu for that as well? Probably!

....how long will the Pals be allowed to come with one idiotic excuse after another for the inability to reach an agreement. Democrats, Republicans, Labor, Kadima, and Likud have all tried. The only constant is Palestinian intransigence. I'm sick of hearing about these people.

One side says no settlements. The other side says it has proof that it owns all of David's kingdom. Our president and both Bibi and Mazen will make great speeches. History made? no

Abbass knows well that Israel did NOT steal any land. how can anyone steal his own property? Israel bought at very high cost land from local Jews and/or Arabs.sellers wanting to sell their property. How can he be so ignorant on this subject? or is he playing his old propaganda game

You are absolutely right. Land stealing is not excuse for security reason.

THE LAST WARNING BEFORE JUDGEMENT ‘Rabi Itzchak said: ‘During the year in which the Messiah will appear, the kings of the nations will quarrel with one another. The king of Persia will quarrel with the king of Arabia, and the king of Arabia will go to Aram to seek council. The king of Persia will destroy the whole world and all the nations of the world will be agitated and confused, they will fall on their faces and pains will seize them like birth-pangs. And Israel will be agitated and confused, and they will say: ‘What shall become of us, what shall become of us?’

Palestinians promise peace, if you just stop existing. There is really nothing to negotiate about.

How can the Israelis steal their own land that Yahweh gave to then? Jeshua will be their defender.

He is absolutely right

After the Gaza-Jericho First agreement (Oslo), Israel was to give Gaza and Jericho over to Palestinian control. Arafat then started an argument: What is meant by "Jericho"? Israel thought it was the city, but Arafat claimed it meant the "District of Jericho" as was used by Jordan, a much larger area. It took months to agree on some compromise, and all this with the understanding that Oslo is a first leg towards a much larger Israeli evacuation in a peace agreement. I hope Abbas does not repeat Arafat's mistakes. Yes, he is legally correct when demanding a complete halt to settlement construction, and even in East Jerusalem, which international law forbids. But better accept some "effective freeze" which would allow only small scale construction, and move on with the larger peace deal. In return for the "freeze" concession, the Palestinians will get some good Israeli concession, such as a larger Area A. The opening declarations are not too comforting, unfortunately.

The settlements have been and still are illegal under international law. The Roadmap, the Quartet, the EU, the UN and the USA have called for an end to settlement. When Israel legitimately get the settlements as part of a peace deal, they can continue building as they wish. It's a shame that so industrious and intelligent people like the Israelis are wasting their time and money on stolen land. If you buy stolen goods, then you put yourself to blame. Otherwise, as Palestinian PM salam fayyad said, the Negev is almost empty and barren and it DOES need development. Seek your jewish heritage there and no one is gonna open their mouths in protest.

Dear Abbas and Bibi , I am begging you, please shut up! We know what your needs are, stop making these demands via news , only few days remain, please bear them out and think of a positive outcome of the meeting in the US. I am not sure if you have realized but the WHOLE WORLD is looking forward to this meeting.

If we let right wing extremists dictate foreign policy then we are responsible for failure of peace. Keep the building freeze until we reach a lasting solution.