Marwan Barghouti: Peace talks with Israel have failed

'The divisions among Palestinians, which Barghouti described as "a crime against the nation", boiled over in 2007 when Hamas seized control of Gaza, splintering the national movement. ' These endless attempts to rewrite the past... The 'national movement' -- such as it was -- was splintered when Fatah, encouraged by the US and Israel, ignored the results of the elections the US had itself encouraged. Hamas took control of Gaza in response to Fatah's doing the same in the West Bank and in order to forestall a Fatah coup with Israeli support in Gaza. Why don't you go on to tell us how 'Cast Lead' stopped the missiles, how the invasion of Lebanon was in response to Hezbollah rocket fire, and how the Palestinians voluntarily left Palestine in 1948 at the orders of their leaders even though the Jews tried to convince them to stay? After all, these are all equally popular lies.

If you think that israel's leaders don't have blood on their hands or that the governent of israel has not committed "mass murders" you are a fool.

The dreaded Threat of Peace is dead. Enjoy the return to terrorism which Netanyahu will welcome.

I might suggest to "Michael Hess" that sometimes the whole is greater than any individual part. Enigmatic? T'was meant to be so, my knee-jerking sir.

Jordan is the "Palestinian" state. That state attacked Israel in 1967 with the stated goal of driving the Jews into the sea. That state lost the war and the west bank. It also lost ownership of the land (just like Germany did after WW2). Hamas and Fatah are internationally recognized as terrorist organizations that have engaged in numerous terrorist acts against Israeli civilians. They are Jordanian citizens who were were wrongly expelled from Jordan by Hashemite (?) ethnic cleansing. Hamas and Fatah should return to Jordan. The people who voted for Hamas and Fatah should likewise be repatriated to Jordan. Jordan is a Muslim state. Israel is the Jewish state. I am not afraid of being blown up by an Israeli while flying to and from my vacation destination. I am aware that I might be blown up by a Muslim while flying to and from my vacation destination.

"Resistance" is the Arab euphemism for murder, especially against civilians.

Who is running this show???to allow a murderous terror mastermind like bargohouty to speak and be heard??? Is at best bizarre...Only in Israel.In any other country,he would have commited suicide,with a bullet in the back of his bloody head, long ago...

"AS to weather or not he had blood on his hands I don't know" What bottle are you drinking from Menachin Begin The guy who blew up the King David Hotel killing 92 inocent unarmed civilians and hanged British , Shamir member of the Stern gang , Areil Sharone the butcher of Beruit not to mention unit 101 next you'll be saying the Haulocaust never Happened

No ifs ands or buts!Shall we go down the list? Lets face facts that there is enough blame to go around.The difference is that there is no Israeli leadership in jail! Barghouti is one more example of Israels destruction of Palestinian leadership! (Targeted assassinations are another but aren't called terrorism either). Peace talks must be carried out between the guilty on both sides! Never ending war tends to create this condition......A FAIR PEACE WOULD CREATE MANY MANDELAS BUT IS THERE ENOUGH BRAVE ISRAELI LEADERS TO ALLOW IT? ....PEACE EVER?

Better read up on Nelson Mandela and the ANC, especially in the 80's. And the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Something Israel should have done for the Nakba decades ago.

Why is it people are so willing to hang their hats on any articulent murderer who strides by? This man, for years, was in the news harping about how great it was to slaughter the Jews. But now hehas learned the jailbird techiques of issuing forth the company lines on peace and finds, as usual an audience among the memory impaired shallow minded leftists who always bank their whole lot on anyone as long as they say "peace". What enormous stupidity. He is a (cup ear here) m-u-r-d-e-r-e-r. Why are you not asking where is the Palestinian leader rising from the ranks w/o blood on his hands and a truth inherent in his character? Why not that, instead of another piece of shit from the past? The Palestinians will never offer anything else until it is expected. So why do you never expect it? If the Pals are so benevolent and misunderstood, bring forth the leader with no blood on his hands. Where is he?

Palestine was well intentioned but ran into a brick wall named Netanyahu. No justice can be derived from Israeli leadership committed to the status quo. Palestine needs a sponsor or it will be trampled by Israel even moreso.

Yes, the wall is about more than racism. Israel seeks docile Arab laborers on the west side (so much as a ball of spachetti has a west side), and angry cavemen of the east. The only racist aspect is offering settlers (who are pretty much all Jewish, the last I heard) easy access to the rest of the world, while limiting the non-settlers (pretty much all Muslim or at least non-Jewish, aren't they?) to a painful beiracratic process to travel 10 miles to the next town, to say nothing of Jordan, Egypt, USA, etc. Do you have your papers, sir? No? Then you may NOT visit Toronto.

Israel is entirely willing to talk peace but not DO peace. I suspect Hamas will prove itself exactly the same, if given a chance. Unfortunately, in the process of such recalcitrance, Israel is systematically laying one obstacle after another, "facts on the ground", to prevent such a peace from ever occuring. I suppose it is common sense, if Israel can subdue the violence to a slow simmer, to prolong it indefinitely because it is effectively seizing Palestinian property and asperations at a cost of just a little Israeli blood. Call the world when you want peace more than somebody else's land and resources, Israel! Netanyahu is begging for a reset to 2000. Were those the best of times for Zionism?

That is precisely why Barghouti ended up in jail in the first place. Hello? At bottom, both sides believe that there is no room to "Judaize" any part of what is claimed to be historic Palestine and demand that the interloper Jews leave, pronto or in stages, and, despite agreements they have signed, will engage in spasms of violence and terror up to accompish this, right up to the point that Israel responds with force.

In the Prisoners Document which he has been involved in drafting whilst he has been in prison he clearly states that armed resistance is legitimate and should be used alongside diplomacy. When Bargouti talks about resistance he talks about terror. The problem with the peace process from day 1 is its been based on deadlines. Oslo aimed to create a state by 1995 and its all been target based. If the plan from the begining was it takes as long as it takes for us to work something out but the goal is peace first state is the bonus. We could have talked as long as it took to build trust. If there was terror all talks would end until further notice and Israel would give nothing. This way the palestinians would have to be make real peace and when they did eventually get a state it would be wanting to live in REAL PEACE with Isral. You can't put deadlines on peacemaking say we will all be friends by a certain date so we can make the arab state, there is to much hatred for that.

...one could dispute the legitimacy of the comparison between Bargouti and Mandela. On the other hand, I seem to recall that at least one former (and well-thought-of) Israeli prime minister had been at a previous time officially labeled as a "terrorist." (As to whether that gentleman had "blood on his hands" or not, I honestly don't know.) My point is simply that sometimes "noses are held," calculated risks taken--which may or may not pay off--because that action is deemed to be more acceptable than the other ready alternatives. (One thing is certain: life itself is a gamble.)

Barghouti complains about the the construction of the "racist separation wall" trying to bring out the 'racist' character of the conflict on the Israeli side. On the other hand, he also complains about the "Judaization of occupied parts of Jerusalem". From that comment, I'd say he was a racist himself as the conflict is known as the Arab Israeli conflict not the Muslim Jewish conflict. He outed himself.

national reconciliation?" The remote 'probability' of some peace agreement between Arab & Israeli far outweighs even the 'possibility' of peace between Fatah & Hamas. Does anyone remember the June 2006 seething hate of the Hamas brutal/cold blooded murders of innocent children and unarmed Fatah officials some thrown from high rise buildings? Clan warefare at its worst.

" I do not see that there are fundamental political differences between Fatah and Hamas" Barghouti

I only wonder what he means by "resistance". The rest sounds incredibly correct.