Palestinian FM: New Mideast talks must focus above all on borders

...After 61 years and the State of Israel still doesn't know its borders. that's a shame. Become modern state and declare your borders..because otherwise one always assumes that israel wants to cheat and have border creep.

I think it really does go to show how utterly deluded and misinformed some people are in the entire ME process. It's one thing to take sides and of course it's understandable Israeli's support their side of the equation but when somebody makes a post in well written English, at least suggesting they don't lack basic comprehension, it's really quite terrifying that their understanding of the situation is that Abbas has been stalling on negotiations because he believed Iran was going to blow up Israel. It really does beggar disbelief at frankly how utterly insane some people are. It really does explain why the problem is so awkward to resolve when you have people so far into the whacko-sphere that they think Abbas was praying for a huge bomb to drop on Israel and wipe out the issue. Jeez,

agenda does not mean preconditions. another round of ME climate warming. dont expect peace soon!

Discussing where the borders belong FIRST, leaving all other issues until later? Netanyahu would have a coronary! Such a discussion could have only one outcome, because only the Palestinians have a cogent argument i.e. BOTH Israel and the Pals agree that Israeli sovereignty (bar Jerusalem) ends at the Green Line, and so that's the logical place to draw a border between the two. By comparison....... Bibi: we want the border to go around the settlements. Abbas/Obama: Bzzzzt, sorry, that prejudges the "fate of the settlements" issue. Bibi: we want the security wall to be the border. Abbas/Obama: Bzzzzt, sorry, that prejudges the "security" issue. Bibi must turn the "negotiations" into a bowl of spaghetti, because that's the only way he can leverage "facts on the ground". But "borders-first" chops him off at the knees, so he will scupper that suggestion, and quickly.

It is one That has happened before, happening now and will again... Palestinians will be unilaterally withdrawn from. I don't think israel will implode and if it keeps it's military strength it's neighbours will implode similar to the cold war after the areas that are not viable to the Jewish state are annexed UN can kiss it's tuchas and enjoy UNRWA same for Arab states that have kept Palestinians in refugee camps since 49

The Arabs (turned Palestinians) have been at war with the Jews (turned Israel) for well over a century. They've lost. The sooner the world explains this to them, the sooner we can have a sustainable peace.

where do you this information from??Sounds like you have an in with the Pals

UNSC Res 242 allows them to keep as much as they need for security "Greg The 242 I have readf says no such thing--it says a negotiated settlement. In any event the only legal Borders Israel has are those they declared in 1948 when they declared independence. Nothing since then has been legally aquired. "Keep the settlements and Jerusalem and the Arabs can keep the refugees." Greg Be careful what you ask for--when the Bi National State materialises it will be strengthened by the influx of millions of Palestinian refugees---which Israel can do nothing about. Demographics and right of return---oh the irony.

You're a genius! Not. Luckily, you are not a voice that matters in any negotiations. You're just a blow hard trying to spoon feed your dilusional fantasies of reality. I prefer Israel not enter into negotiations with Abbas or anyone else for that matter. Your Jewish state is teetering on the edge of demise from within...and it's not the Pals doing the most damage. So keep blowing your smoke and delaying the negotiating because I love the sound of a binational state where the Pals outnumber, hence out-vote your beloved fellow Israelis. Hurray for you!

Once you have borders determined, what continued settlement building is allowed and what is not allowed is settled. It doesn't settle air space, army, refugees, water rights, and many other questions. Does it take away the threat (and leverage) that Israel has that it will continue to build settlements? Sure it does. But that threat is as dangerous to Israel as it is to Palastinians because settlers aren't looking to threaten, they are looking to build, and Israelis need to be protected as much against settlers as they need to be protected against Palastinians. Absent restrictions, settlers will recklessly build Israel into one, bi-national state without bothering to check the consequences, and then Israel will be left with choices like expulsion or apartheid, neither of which is palatable.

14 out of more than 14,000 prisoners is less than 0.1%. This statistic in unimpressive. Can you say these are definitively from starvation and negligence or even that this proportion is much lower in foreign jails, especially around the Arab world?

The greatest myth that the foolish Israelis seem to have accepted is that somehow israel has an obligation to create a viable palestinian state where noe existed before. Israel captured the land from JOrdan. Jordan's subsequent unilateral abandonment of claims to the WB creates no obligations for israel. Whether the land left for the palestians is "viable" is not israels business. The remaining land can rejoin with jordan or do what it wants. Certainly Israel should never provide a link across its land. This link never existed before 1967 and is an invention of the anti semites with double standards. Israelis are fools for buying into this canard. Gaza and the west bank should remain separate. They are different ethnic peoples.

...his demands. Obama has created a situation where a petulant scandal ridden abbas has no personal advantage in talks. Obama caused this with his talk of a settlement freeze which was never a past condition to talks. Either talks start with no conditions or just forget about them. Israel has no obligation to create a viable paletinian state. Israel caprured WB from Jordan, jordans abdication of its relationship with the west bank creates no obligations for Israel. Israel should annex the areas it needs for security and leave the palestinians to do what they want with regards to nation or federation, etc. The only thing is that the unannexed land must be occupied until the arabs pose no threat.

Your childish comment demonstrates your total lack of understanding of the situation. Abbas has never held up the negotiations. He has simply refused to take part in another round of Israel's phony, bad-faith attempt at staging negotiations when they plan on negotiating nothing. The whole peace process is a farce and Abbas knows it. He has simply demanded that Israel show some good faith, for once, before sitting down to negotiate, by complying with their "Road Map" obligations to cease all settlement activity. Netanyahu has brazenly thumbed his nose at the Palestinians, the U.S. the European Union and the Russians by stating quite clearly that he will in no way honor that obligation. Abbas has cracked down on militants(to the point of an all out war between Hamas and Fatah that risked his own presidency),and strengthened security in the West Bank by conducting cooperative security training and exercises with both Israel and U.S. So who is really holding up the peace process??

Israel should come clean about how much land they intend to keep if a Pal state is created. UNSC Res 242 allows them to keep as much as they need for security so Israel shouldn't consider that they need to trade what they keep for other issues like 'refugees' or Jerusalem. Keep the settlements and Jerusalem and the Arabs can keep the refugees.

Israel holds prisoners 14,700 Palestinian in prison. Over 70% of these are children between the ages of 16 and 19. 14 children have died of starvation in Israeli prisons this year alone. The release of all Palestinian children from the Israeli Gulag must be a precondition for talks to begin.

demanding further talks and concessions on "refugees" . Did't know Netanyahu was that dumb.

Abbas has been holding up the peace process since rejecting Olmert's closing down sale-style offer because of the widespread belief in the Arab world that an Iranian bomb will destroy Israel. For various reasons including the increasing awareness of the Iranian threat on the part of his financial backers in the West he has now come to the conclusion that there is no alternative to negotiations. That does not mean that he can be trusted to negotiate in good faith, unfortunately.

Every American and Israeli leader must make their "peace attempt". Usually, this consists of nothing but talk. As long as Israel profits by avoiding peace and pays no penalty for it, they will continue to do so. Who can blame them? The American leadership is to weak and unconcerned to want to take on the Jewish Lobby. This means that the talks are always held in bad faith and are nothing more than a photo op for America and Israel. The Palestinians do not profit from this charade and are tired of being played for fools. Obama must have privately tossed a bone to Abbas to gain his participation.