Mideast peace talks could begin as early as Sunday

It seems some what premature to talking of peace with neighboring coutries when Israel is heading for a civil war. The far right and the ultra orthdox are by far the biggest threat we are facing today. The left will join the arabs as we are united in the fact that we are all victims of the fascist right wing religious parties and i for one cant wait to end this so called notion of halacha state ! They want war then bring it on !

Dear Friends, You have never come so close to peace... Thus I wish you " good luck " to you all... Kindest regards, Antoine GED

Wonderful sentiments, but legally rubbish. On 14 May 1948, under UN resolution 181, Israel declared statehood, with sovereignty within precisely, meticulously detailed borders dictated by the resolution. The remainder of the territory in Palestine was Palestinian. In 1967, Israel occupied the remainder of Palestine. UN resolution 242 then demanded Israel withdraw from the occupied territories. Israel has refused and is in violation of that resolution, and thus international law. Therefore, the West Bank and Gaza, and Jerusalem for that matter, are not legally part of Israel. Israeli built settlements on the occupied lands, the blockade of Gaza, collective punishment of a civilian population, and the annexation of Jerusalem are violations of articles of the 4th Geneva Convention. Breaches of the Convention are considered war crimes. If Ben Gurion were to stand in front of the ICC in the Hague, to defend Israel against charges of war crimes, not one of his sentences is legally valid.

You would be more comfortable living in Israel, where you can pitch in and enjoy the most serious case of national paranoia in the world, maybe in history. There, in Israel, you could join the chant for a national march to Masada, because the whole world is out to kill all Jews, and there is nothing left to do. You poor things, youve been thru so much. Why don't you give up the occupied Palestinian territory, remove the illegal settlements, the illegal barrier wall, renounce the illegal annexation of Jerusalem, end the genocidal blockade in Gaza and make it all well. As it stands, Israel is in violation of more UN resolutions than any country in the world. It is in violation of articles 33, 49, 53, and 157 of the 4th Geneva Convention. Breaches of articles of the 4th Convention are considered war crimes. The Gaza blockade is the worst violation of human rights taking place in the world today. Israel will become stronger once it stops being a rogue nation. Don't blame the Arabs.

Bibi has taken a page from Menachem Begin, who is reputed to have said something like, " I only promised to PROMISE - I never promised to DO." While the foreign dogs bark, the convoy continues its journey toward the building of an Israel extending from the River to the Sea. Keyn Yehi Ratzon.

?No Jew is at liberty to surrender the right of the Jewish Nation and the Land of Israel to exist. No Jewish body is sanctioned to do so. No Jew alive today has the authority to yield any piece of land whatsoever. This right is preserved by the Jewish people throughout the generations and cannot be forfeited under any circumstance. Even if at some given time there will be those who declare that they are relinquishing this right, they have neither the power nor the jurisdiction to negate it for future generations to come. The Jewish Nation is neither obligated by nor responsible for any waiver such as this. Our right to this land in its entirety, is steadfast, inalienable and eternal. And until the coming of the Great Redemption, we shall never yield this historic right.? DAVID BEN-GURION

The Camp David Overture was never followed up. It divided the Arab states; isolate Syria; made Lebanon the battlefield; transferred the intelligent Jewish people into a nation of soldiers and occupier; created more terrorism; gave birth to Hamas and Hezbollah and the worst of all it invited Iran to the conflict. Definitely, I pray for peace and hope the negotiation will succeed, but the indirect negotiation with the Palestinian is an insult to human intelligent.

Let's say four months so Israel can reassess its position same as the Arabs. If the Arabs pull out of the talks all bets are off construction goes on. 95% of the borders have already been agreed to so any failure will be the Pals fault. As far as refugees most will go to a new Pal state not Israel. Any allowed into Israel must be willing to live in peace within that country and fully recognize its right to exist, Signing citizenship papers stating that fact. East Jerusalem can be their capital and West Jerusalem the Israeli capital. The city itself will be some sort of neutral zone with no Pal army allowed in, only a Pal police force with limited arms in E.J.. Israel will be allowed full access to W. Jerusalem and all religious sites important to the Jewish faith in all of Jerusalem. There were done.

may get on the way by Monday and with much Hope America may be in a position to claim an American Achievement. Only one sticky point that "Territory taken in Self-defence from a Defeated Aggressor can be retained." On http:/xrl/us/osyi:8. Possibly with George Mitchell that law may be abolished.

There is a sense of both optimism and urgency in the air as these new talks begin. I wish all leaders the wisdom and courage necessary to talk the bold steps that will lead to a just peace for all. Sincerely Bruce Craig Roter Composer of "A Camp David Overture (Prayer for Peace)"

Desires peace and the immediate resusitation of negotiations, right! Let's look at the situation. The Palestinians demand a settlement freeze. Israel agrees to a temporary freeze. What does the world iunderstand from this commitment? That it will freeze settlement activity, right? But that is not what Israel means by its "commitment". It excludes East Jerusalem, and allows building to continue in existing settlements, as has been proven by various agencies. We see netanyah in his penchant for impeccable timing meant to incite, ok the go ahead for the monstrocity called a museum of tolerance built over an Arab cemetery, he allows the police to strong arm protesters who homes are being stolen and taken over by gangs of fanatics, and he declares shared Muslim?Jewish holysites as "heritage sites" those provoking more incitement. And the Arab League thinks this is a government that will agree to a complete freeze on their expansionism? Think again.

nowhere to go !! the british ruined any chance of order by stealing 78% of the land for transjordan. unless jordan is included in the negotiations it will never work !

Bibi will pretend to negotiate Bibi will be opposed by his own Party Labor seeing crack in Likud calls for early election The script starts all over again with the new government in place. It's a "do loop" in computer programming that never gets anywhere

(Obama) said that he want to get thing done and peace in the region, but he is bias like every other administration. I voted for him but i lost confidence in him is well!The only thing i see him sorround himself are jews.... So now we have AIPAC in the congress senate tell them what to do, and his jewish friend tell the president how to procede. Get out of Israel and Palestinian peace process american! You cannot be a honest broker!!

The Palestinians are always putting up road blocks to peace to make sure it does not happen. Their dissatisfaction with talks is guaranteed. Nothing has changed except the growth of Islamic Fundamentalism.

thousands of them, have you counted? In fact these Arab children love it in Israeli jails, they have schooling, TV, playtime, and lots to eat. Israeli 'education'?

that will satisfy a Palestinian/Arab entity whose aim is the very 'Destruction of the State of Israel'. Hope it will be good enough for the Arab League who are in fact the very ones who created the problems besetting their 'Palestinian Refugees' from the very beginning.

What is your source for the number of Palestinians is Israeli prisons? The number seems a tiny bit excessive, don't you think? "More than 80% of them are children between the ages of 17 and 21" At what age, do "children" become adults? Do you suppose that any of those "children" in prison are actual terrorists?

Going back to more than 60 years solution, can't be other than a childish "whispering game" ! With so much water went down the bridge, it took away with it all solutions. What one can expect to-day from Abbas with hardly one leg ? A 'whispering charade' all that is left of the palestinians game !

oh really? who do they think they are kidding?

Let the Pals start from square one also. Beginning with the land Israel established their state in may of 1948. Why should the Pals be tied to the 1967 cease fire lines. Israel is not entitled to one inch of land by right of conquest. The Pals might decide to be overly generous and allow Israel to extend it's borders to the '67 lines but that would be through negotiations. Settlements? Let them stay as part of the New Palestine. Jerusalem? The UN envisioned it as an International city. Both Israel and Palestine can administer it jointly. Right of return? This is an individual right that cannot be negotiated away by either side. Only the refugees can decide to either take compensation, take land in Palestine or return to their homes. Since Israel will reject all of this the Pals will do one of two things: declare a state unilaterally or dissolve the PA and let Israel become responsible for their occupation. Looks like a Bi-national state to me.

order of mathematicaly logic sience. It is a cold place, perhaps the coldest of the universe, and anyone living there deserves to receive pityfull accknowledgement.

Natalie, What people seem to forget is this 'relaunch' of negotiations is meant to be a cover for the looming Israeli/US strike on Iran. Theyve done the same in the run up to the Iraq invasion. The Arab league should be aware of this and I hope they man-up following the 4-month deadline to move the 'negotiations' forward.

Get real, folks. Demanding that Israel have a total freeze on settlements is like asking the Palestinians to have a total freeze on attacking Israeli civilians. It ain't gonna happen. Yea, you forgot about that, didn't you? Palestinian policy from both Hamas and Fatah is to attack Israeli civilians, freeze or no-freeze, peace talks or no peace talks. So let's stop imposing demands, before the Israeli public gets pissed off and demands that peace talks won't happen until the Palestinians stop their policy of attacking civilians.

When do you expect Israel to recognize and comply with your precondition? I've NEVER seen that from Israel or the IDF any more than I've seen it from the Palestinians. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. How about starting with one single week without a single raid or home demolition or broken anything?

How soon they forget or are they playing the world for a fool? The Palestinians know that they could not sign a peace deal without the approval of the Arab States and in particular Syria. Israel never shows any sign that it wants peace, but it is eager to start a new negotiation to show the world that it wants peace. The purpose of this indirect negotiation is a recipe to divide and conquer and a war. George Mitchell as good as he is is wasting his time.

... a row of half-a-dozen kids, the first whispers something into the ear of the second, and so forth... by the time the whisper gets to the sixth, something hilariously different comes out...

@10 I agree with u 100%. Arabs are cowards ,specially the leaders . They are CIA/MOSSAD agents. Until the public continue being silent in arab countries then notting will happen in the peace process .Isreals already figured out their weakenss long time ago and they will continue playing games . The Arab people must raise up aganist corrupted leaders and get rid of them once for all.

Keep yakking on about peace talks that lead nowhere---until now. Palestinians have begun to show they are no longer interested in talking about peace while Israel is doing everything it can to destroy any chance of it. Abbas has gotten one last shot at this bsed on his promise that if it goes nowhereand it will, then the peaceful protests will begin and demands for equality and a vote for all citizens of a Bi National STATE. Only question remaining is how many Palestinians is Israel willing to murder keeping that dreaded peace away from it,s door. The end of the Apartheid regime in South Africa revisited. Ergo, the end of the Zionist Regime.

Keep yakking on about peace talks that lead nowhere---until now. Palestinians have begun to show they are no longer interested in talking about peace while Israel is doing everything it can to destroy any chance of it. Abbas has gotten one last shot at this bsed on his promise that if it goes nowhereand it will, then the peaceful protests will begin and demands for equality and a vote for all citizens of a Bi National STATE. Only question remaining is how many Palestinians is Israel willing to murder keeping that dreaded peace away from it,s door. The end of the Apartheid regime in South Africa revisited. Ergo, the end of the Zionist Regime.

They have been negotiating for 20 years and they achieved nothing; more violence, more killing and more hate.How can I believe indirect negotiations may achieve something?! They will start from square one? I believe Israel is not seriously interested in peace, so the best way for PA to do is to dissolve itself and transform the responsibilities of Palestine to the Israeli side as an pre-requeset for the Binational Country.

East Jerusalem is considered Occupied Palestinian Authority, whether israel likes it or not. This is Palestinian land, occupied illegally by Israel. Please review international law, for example, UNSCR 476. Settlement freeze is not a Palestinian demand. It is an Israeli Obligation. In international law, the settlements are ILLEGAL. Many articles in international law say that settlements are illegal. I advice you to search more for facts.

Both Sides should bring their maps of what they think the borders and water arrangements should be. And Israel should reconcile to the absence of the right of conquest and accept that land and resource, including water exchange on a 1:1 basis is the only way that any deal will get done. Balfour and the UK never owned Palestine and neither France nor the UK had any right to take or give anything. Israel was established in 1948, after the expiration of the right of conquest. The US and its allies did away with that at Nuremberg and Israel even signed on to the concept of no right of conquest. Missed it by that much. The Palestinians are already conceding all of Israel's conquests pre-1967. What concessions is Israel offering to match?

The Arab League and Palestinians still agree that a complete settlement freeze should be the first step, but that won't happen under this right-wing Israeli government. The settlers are like our nutjob teabaggers--they're crazy but they turnout to vote. Bibi's government will collapse without the settlers' support.

A conflict that has lasted over 100 years cannot be expected to be solved overnight. Patience is exhausting with both sides using the other as an excuse to reneg on their obligations. The Arab League's re-involvement, without raising their previous proposal, is a unique and crucial development and wise of Abbas to demand. A complete construction freeze is a fair request - but only for the duration of the negotiations. Netanyahu can get away with it as long as this caveat is emphasized. Stopping and starting construction hurts only the builders. Which is worse, building delays or continued bloodshed? As long as talks progress, the construction freeze can be continued. If the Palestinians reneg or try upping the ante, then Israel can always unfreeze. Most interesting will be whether Abbas tries including Hamas, or just negotiates on behalf of the West Bank. There is certainly a better chance of success at peace with the latter (excluding Hamas/Gaza).

Israel continues to hold more than 47,550 Palestineans in prison. More than 80% of them are children between the ages of 17 and 21. At the very least, Abbas must insist that all children be released as a precondition for the resumption of talks.

That condition is much more imortant & necessary than cessation of building. Dean people can't be revived. Israel can leave an area that it has built up, something it has previously demonstrated.

The Arab League of cowards capitulated to Israel and their patron, America. Israel is not interested in peace. The country is governed by extremist settlers and their allies whose goes is to steal as much Palestinian land as possible. The talks will lead nowhere but now Israel will use "peace talks" as a cover to continue building settlements and ethnically cleansing E. Jerusalem. And the biased pro-Israel Americans overseeing the "talks" will make sure Israel is never forced to uphold any of its obligations towards peace. The Arab League of Cowards has given in to the same old ploy by the Israelis and Americans. Netanyahu and his right-wing pals right now are laughing at how weak and foolish the Arabs are.

Talks should start from where they left off, and Israel should follow through on the undertakings it agreed to in previous talks. Israel expects talks to start from scratch in every new round of talks, and time they assassinate the other side's leader. Everyone knows this is why these 'negotiations' are an outrageous farce.

Side by side. The Dome of the Rock and the Temple. Then peace talks will be assured success.

We will do and we will hear. "Naaseh venishmah"...

Arab League issues are about sovereignty , dhimmitude in line with a extortion with threats for complete settlement freeze. Although it will take at least 500 years if not more for the OIC-Arab League to get over such of its extortions and politics as war completion , I would still disasgree with the Israel radical left support of such OIC-Arab League positions . Because eventhough the Israel radical left is pushing to integration (with the world), secularism, liberalism, multiculutralism, human rights and whatever it likes to, to survive ... It still cannot deny the secular and liberal Democratic Jewish State of Israel citizenry sovereignty and rights over cultural heritages sites such as Unified Jerusalem: David City reunified with Temple Mount, beside Patriarchs burial site , Racchel Tomb , Joseph Tomb, and many others cultural heritages sites in our biblical heartlands etc... The Israeli radical left must not accept for the peace purposes to utter under the hupa : If i forget you half Jerusalem while breaking the Glass ... Come on folks ( radical Israel left ) cannot determine yourself as Zionists-Israelis if you want a canaan or arabpal state .

this demand gives the PA an opening to accuse Israel anytime they don't get what they want, because the Pals decide what is a settlement, and consider Jerusalem already theirs, before talks.

Everybody meet at Gaza Bar and Grill afterwards for drinks!

As long as Israel continues to profit by avoiding peace they will continue to do so. In spite of this, it is necessary for American and Israeli leaders to have peace talks, even if it is a sham. They can say they tried and, with practice, they can keep a straight face. The American government is the main problem. Israel cannot really be blamed for exploiting the situation, but America enables the situation.

Abbas will never be able to bring hamas with him to any meaningful peace with Israel. All negotiations between abbas & Israel will bring nothing but a pressure on israel to give more concessions. A repeat to abbas-olmerts days of free gestures ! Nathanyahu must not agree only when israel rights & security are being protected. And the core issues of jerusalem & the unreturn of refugees are resolved. Any things less than that will bring down this administration down and netanyahu will be in a similar situation as abbas now. If netanyahu is trying to expose Abbas he must concentrate any coming negotiations on the role of hamas and the true authority of abbas to speak on behalf of the palestinians !

Well, whether people are for these talks or not it would be nice to see either the talks kicking off this Sunday or the talks being written off altogether. All these "peace talks to resume soon" reports have REALLY gotten old, yawn.

It makes no sense to freeze the construction. It will only hurt the Palestinians who earn their livelyhood from working on the construction. Here's a novel idea: Let the West Bank Settlers build all they want and tell them that they will be welcome to live in Palestine after it becomes a state. Really.

they won't work. Lazy, spoiled, thieving US- backed Israel isn't willing to do a thing to achieve peace. Sad, really. It will come back to bite Israel in the behind in 50 yrs. Most of us Haaretz readers will be dead and gone by then. But Israel's children will be made to pay for their fathers' crimes.

The ultra-zionist Hillary clinton can't be stupid as she appears in her call for peace negotiations. Israel will not negotiate in good faith for the simple reason that they are in the midst of the ethnic cleaning of East Jerusalem and the West Bank and the U.S. is not going to say they can't. Would you negotiate in good faith if your own lawyer were conducting the negotiations?

Holy Matrimonial till death fo us apart,

The usual dance begins once more. The demands of the Arabs for a total freeze of settlements. Then will come East Jerusalem. Everyone knows that whatever the pleasantries, the game will be the ultimate dilution of Israel as a nation, a weakening of Israel territorial until eventual the Arabs gain enough arms and power to wipe out the nation. Yet the game must go on since the outside players have a stake in shmoozing up to the Arab world. Sometimes I feel like the Western world already lost to the doggedness and tyranny of Islam, so fixated on its own expansion and influence.

A land swap a palestinian east jerusalem and a refugee return 15000/year for five years with reviews must happen. But the arabs and islam must adopt the German holocaust atonement education system for four generations particularly with regard to the qassam arab revolt and the failure of the world of islam turkey afghanistan and islamic india offering refugee to the pregnant women and children of europe and the islamic world not fully mobilizing and mass attacking the nazi pagan barbarians.