Palestinian official: We're ready for talks with U.S., but not Israel

Sigh all this commotion over a little careless wording. What I meant when I talked about the borders "when there was peace" was the Israeli original borders. I'm aware that there hasn't been a period of time that should be called peaceful. I guess it is the sort of thing that happens when you're a bit tired in the morning. Anyway, I noticed that all who responded to my post just jumped on this careless wording, nobody wanted to discuss the actual statement?

RE:when there was peace. And when was that?????

Where does Obama think it lies? And Clinto? Mitchell? They may have varied dieas from the palestinians and the Israelis both. But surely none of them can think that wih the past and present pace of Israeli expansionism around East Jerusalem and all of the West Bank that there will remain anything viable out of which the Palestinian state can be formed. What then do they all mean when they speak of a two state solution. Where will that second state be?

Now you can see how it feels when someone else, other then a Jew is playing the under-dog role. Give back the borders of 1967 then the Palestinians "might" start talking towards peace. If not then i guess the Israeli's are gonna have to continue living in fear, building walls and such to "protect" themselves. In reality its not Israel thats building this "security wall" it really is called a land-grab or stealing land, however u wanna put it.

Finally some good news! The Palestinians are talking to the USA in order to be resettled in old Indian reserves territories. Makes sense and space too. Bon voyage!

Hey, Obama! Tell me again who is the roadblock to peace?

"Erekat`s maximalist position guarantees the latter." Huh? Erekat has never demanded the destruction of Israel. The majority of Pals have repeatedly made it clear that they will accept a 2 state solution based on the World's decision (UN 242) that Israel must withdraw from lands occupied in 1967 and address the refugee issue fairly. It is Israel that insists on a maximalist position. It will never return what the entire world (including the US) knows that it has stolen. No country recognizes any right of Israel to the WB or Gaza. Who is maximalist and unreasonable?

These strange people (Israelis) will never get it right. They can have peace anytime by complying with Un SC Res 242 and withdrawing from land occupied in the 1967 war. Instead they thumb their nose at the world, including the US, and continue to make peace impossible. The last 40 years make it clear that Israel will never willingly agree to a just peace, one that doesn't give it what it wants at the Pals expense. The UN has set forth the lawful, just solution, but Israel will never agree. The Pals only chance is to convince the US, which has made Israel's misbehavior possible with impunity, that Israel must be forced to change. The rest of the world is on board; only the US stands between Israel and massive sanctions that would lead it to realize that peace and economic stability are more important than Gaza and the WB. Talking to Bibi is a waste of time. Look how he's treated Obama, leader of the most important (and almost only) friend Israel has in the world

no they do not have to return land they won in battle. but if they want keep the land it comes with 3.5 million non jews. return the land and the people or keep the land and the people. that is how it works. if you want the land are you willing to make the 3.5 million jews citizens of israel?

"The Palestinians and the Jewish far-leftists assume vast concessions would bring peace." (Ken Jurist) That's not true at all. Don't put words in their mounths. What Palestinians and the Jewish far-leftists believe, and leftists too, is that no Palestinian state can be established, as long as there are settlements and occupation. THIS is what they say. And that ending the 42-year occupation of a foreign and stateless population is no concession. It is in Israel's own interet. "Every Palestinian leader wants all of Jerusalem." (Ken Jurist) No one can claim he knows what the PLO leadership wants, not until negotiations have been held, and their outcome published. Don't lie.

The peace effort is to make Israel and Palestine live peacefully. the whole idea of peace talk is a joke if Palestine refuses to talk with Israel. If you don't want to talk with Israel then don't talk with U.S. too. Enough of this cat and mouse game.

100 Years War. As O alludes to, there have actually been more years of peace than war/intifada since 1948. Most people would consider there was peace at the moment, though Albrecht will no doubt point out that Islamic Jihad fired a home-made rocket that landed harmlessly in the desert last week so that means we are all at war. The trick is, if the Israeli Government and Hamas can claim there is a war going on, then both can happily relax. Because it means they can avoid peace talks and Final Status agreements, which both are desperate to circumnavigate to placate their extremist constituencies.

It is certainly true that Israel's neighbors have, in decades past, tried to destroy Israel. They failed. It is also true that the Pals and most arab states would like to see Israel destroyed. Given Zionist conduct wrongly denying refugees' rights in 1948 and 40 years of brutal occupation, their hatred is imminently understandable. But they also know Israel is not going away. Even though the IDF have turned to wimps (brutalizing women and children do that to armies), the US will never let it happen. Poll after poll have shown that the vast majority of Palestinians want a 2 state peace. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, etc. want to destroy Israel but even they envision such a miracle only in some distant future. Peace begets peace and war begets war. Given a chance at a decent life, very few Pals would choose to continue the current nightmare as long as they do not have to surrender all rights and rightfully owned land. Once peace breaks out, it will likely continue.

the legacy of mendicancy lives on

"It would also be the destruction of Israel to give back the land, divide J`lem and allow refugees" This is absolutely ridiculous. Israeli actions in WB and Gaza have greatly harmed Israel. If it relinquished these ill gotten gains, it would no longer be an outlaw state and its survival would be made more certain, not less. No more Goldstone reports, the development of normal relations with many states that are now hostile to it and an IDF that can focus on defending Israel instead of brutalizing women and children. Despite stated negotiating positions, all parties understand that reparations will have to be made instead of allowing Pal refugees return to a hostile Israel. The only peace offered was return of part of what UN found wrongly taken, no real sovereignty and nothing for refugees. Israel is like a thief who is too greedy to take loot from his pockets so he can fit through a window to escape to safety.

I should have, perhaps, been more explicit. I too was using the notion of "starving" (#8) as a figure of speech, meaning, "anxious to get rid of the West Bank occupation". The PLO leaders are not so much "starving", so to speak, for a state of their own, as to be prepared to negotiate over the West Bank while our settlements are eating away every part of it. In their eyes, and it stands to reason, Israeli leaders unprepared to stop, even not for a while and as a gesture of good will, all settlement construction, are not really serious about the resolution of the conflict. They also know, be assured, that time and demography are on their side, and that a Jewish state ruling all the Land, from the sea to the river, and ALL ITS POPULATION, has no chance at all to survive for long under its present name and flag. Surely not as a Jewish and democratic country. Our rightist leadership's maximalist positions - - one of them, their demand for a formal recognition of Israel as the legitimate state of the Jewish people - guarantees the latter.

"Not all Jews will be frightened by threats of a bi-national state" (Sam) I guess you are right. Sad but true. There will always be people choosing to ignore reality and play the ostrich. "The Torah tells them to settle and settle they will." (Sam) There will also be false teachers to tell their flocks what God really intends. And people deluded enough to forget all common sense and take them at their words. Rabbi Yehuda Gelman said, "We can desire the Land of Israel with great yearning, but that does not constitute sufficient merit. [...] To deserve the Land we must become a society of spiritual excellence in all spheres of life, a nation of decency, in government and personal relations. Obsessive concentration on Eretz Yisrael should yield to concentrating on creating before God a meritorious nation." www.yeshiva.org.il/midrash/shiur.asp?cat=58&id=4825&q= Will you enlight me Sam: Where is it written that to deserve all the Land, we have to rule a foreign and stateless people? What is so "meritorious" in that? And what kind of "spiritual excellence and decency in government" is this?

It would seem you have everything just 180 degrees off. Your solution is that the Palestinians have to accept all such things as the expulsion of their people, the expropriation of their land, and the discriminatory way the Palestinians who remained are treated. With respect, nobody is quite that ready to roll over and die.

Same old same old ! The palestinians accepted Israel as well as the UN resolutions in 1988. Did Israel ? And please don't tell me israelis had the project to live on that land without harming the palestinians in 48 ! that would be a lie. Arabs (palestinians) were a large majority at the time, remember ? and jews a minority. Thousands of palestinians were either killed and kicked out...in order to create Israel. That's history. Would you have accepted to be chased from your land ?

Yeah ok, what's your point ? Is there a peace partner in Israel ? the answer is no. See you old boy !

"You forget that Abraham was a Jew!" Don't be daft! Next you'll be claiming that Adam was a Jew, or if you're not a religious nut, Lucy and the pre-humans! Stephanie's right. Jews were the Canaanites living in Judah, not Israel.

At the time of Abraham there were no Jews. Abraham was the son of Terah, who was a mesopotamian man ("Iraqi"), of the descendence of Noah through his son Shem (hence "s(h)emite"). Judah was not even born at the time. Like I said, only of of the 12 tribes of Israel is an offshoot of Judah - and only these are Jews, and their mother comes from the line of Keturah, whose origin is unknown. And this was recognized by the Israelites - hence the state of Judah was separate. Just a guess, the haredim today are probably more likely along the lines of Judah. And today, as of yesterday, the other Israelis have a hard time getting along with their judean half cousins.

"It is Israel that is reluctant to return to the state that was when there was peace." On May 14, 1948, the last British forces left Haifa, and the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, in accordance with the 1947 UN Partition Plan. [...] Arab League members Egypt, TransJordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq declared war and announced their rejection of the UN partition decision. [...] Saudi-Arabia and Sudan also sent forces to participate in the invasion. (Wikipedia) So what period in history are you exactly talking about?!?

Just curious? What planet do you live on? You refer in your post to "when there was peace" When exactly was that? Since the state of Israel declared it's independence there has not been peace. The palestinians have not recognized Israel's right to exist for 61 years. Too bad the Pals didn't accept what the UN offered them, maybe all this bloodshed could have been avoided. 61 years later they still can't accept that Israel is here to stay. Get over it

Why should Isreal return land they won in a war of defense? Jordan and Eygpt never cared about the land they lost, and it's Israel right to keep it. If anything they should return it to Jordan and Eygpt and let them deal with there brothers. Let some other countries return land, the US should return the Southwest to Mexico or the Indians.

Sam old boy, you just can't help omitting the fact that Arafat founded the PLO in 1964. In 1964 there were no settlements in the West Bank, only Jordanians peeing on the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. Sammy, the truth is that people like Erekat and the rest not only don't want peace, but can't afford peace. They would be out of a job. The aid (guilt) money would dry up and the real work of statehood would have to be done. No stomach for that is there ?

Great idea...Let them talk with the USA and with Brazil also...The USA could use some 2.5Million people to live in Alaska and we would welcome another 2.5Million into Brazil,to populate the Great Swamps(Pantanal),in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul...The best idea the pals had in the last 100 years...Bravo!!!!!!!!!

What is it that the parties are to negotiate about? The Palestinians and the Jewish far-leftists assume vast concessions would bring peace. Abbas says he rejected Jerusalem Arab neighbourhoods from Olmert. Olmert offered Abbas the equivalent of 100% of the territories. Who is going to offer him more? It doesn`t take a Leiberman to tell us that any peace process would be a sham. The only purpose of talks is the Western hope that this will delay Palestinian violence. Every Palestinian leader wants 2 Palestinian states, all of Jerusalem and left wing Jews are to ignorant to see this. Look at the PLO congress a few months ago. They celebrated Aab mass murderers, talked how 5 million Arabs were going to Israel and that all of Jerusalem would be controlled by the Arabs. Soon the Palestinians will start their umpteen terrorist war and start firing behind children hoping civilians will be killed. We know the Arabs mindset.

You're right. Settle the borders question and settlements solve themselves for the most part.

You forget that Abraham was a Jew!

mr erekat can you sit the bench and watch the way hamas and jihad will bring palestinian state with 67 borders, leave your unfruitfull negotiations with netenyahu's goverment. give QASSAM THE CHANCE

....using your logic, Israel should be including Hamas in peace talks with Fatah and not the US. Israel is not making peace with the US? Or are they

First of all: Dave, do you think you could wait with responding again until you locate your missing keys for your keyboard? Reading your post hurts my eyes... Anyway in response to that which is legible: there is a difference between peace offers that are intended to achieve peace and offers that you know that the other side has to refuse. I explained that in my first post, you must not have read it very well. Israeli leaders can not expect to keep the occupied territories. And your notion that Palestinians don't want peace as long as Israel exists is pure BS. What is being asked is that Israel returns the territory that it has taken through war.

The jewish state, or "Judah", formed only a small part around Jerusalem. The bigger part, comprising 11 of the 12 tribes, was Israel and never accepted Jerusalem as its capital. The land was promised and given to Abraham, not to Judah - who was only one of 12 tribes. And Judah married "outside the family" so his children (Jews) never completely were Abrahmic, unlike the rest of the Israelites. And hence their claim to anything was always considered doubtful, at best. That Israelites started callin themselevs as Jews, was an abberation after the Assyrian invasion. It is time this got corrected.

if the parties don't go ahead and do it themselves.

palestinians is invention,never existed,Jews have more rights to Medina, then Muslims to Jerusalem.

The Palestinians never seem to avoid missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity for peace. If they want to wait until all their conditions are met they might as well wait until the next millenium. They need to stop their childish behaviour and sit down now with Israeli leaders and have serious discussions about peace and a two-State solution or else wait for yet another opportunity to pass them by. The world knows what a two-State solution would like and the only thing holding it back is the willingness of Palestinian leaders to lead. Violence and terror will not get them a State and neither will empty rhetoric. Come to the table now and talk peace and show some leadership. Your people are badly, badly in need of real leadership.

Has the Americans grown tired of Netanyahu?

Dear Palestinian Official:You cannot pretend to have a dialogue with someone you do not recognise. Throw your slogan in the trash can and agree for peace. Extremists are not good for anyone.

Starving is a figure of speech that also includes misery. My point was that Fatah leadership does not seem to be able to differentiate between the real benefits of peace, someting they have been enjoying in the WB re: economic growth, and perpetual misery assured by continued confrontation. Erekat's maximalist position guarantees the latter.

A lot of people are saying that Pals never want peace unless its without Israel....etc & that they are always offered peace but reject it. The thing that puzzles me with what all you people saying that is that you make it sound like 2 equal states fighting eachother... as opposed to 1-state occupying the other nation & having them under a brutal military regime. Seriously i mean i dont support Fatah or Hamas & dont think they make right moves but you people are still thinking in such narrow terms. There never was (or ever will be) a people who live in horrible conditions imposed on them who are going to spread their arms & say "come make peace with us". They want a peaceful like, they dont want conditions imposed on them by an occupier under a guide of 'peace'. Real peace is one with justice & compromise, not a business deal based on who has the power & control over the other. You people discard so many facts & dont question anything it's sometime alarming the level of indoctrination

sorry but this is not a love story where woman to seduce man rejects him and the man follows him try to convince her or vice versa. come back to real world... palestinian leadership had always a reason to run away from the talks with isr. and isr is always the one who calls for peace talks. i never saw one time that pals calling beggin to isr to come and talk its always isr doing it... in the real world for me if u always reject something=you dont want it... pals aren't war lovers they want peace but without isr... I can assure u till the last jew on this earth is dead Israel will exist. everytime isr an pal seem to be close to reach an agreement there re rockets comin from everywhere to isr... 2006 isr and pals try to reach agreement hizb and hamas captures soldiers WAR.. last year peace talks everyday 10s of missiles from gaza than war. these re the last 2 examples it has been this way all the time since 67 and before

given the importance of security and the defensive vulnerability of Israel's 'narrow waist', why has Israel never pressed for a buffer security zone in western Samaria? Between 2 and 10 Km wide, the 6 Jewish settlement blocs ceded to Israel or under Israeli security control, the 5 Pal areas - Qibya, Biddya, Qalqilya, Tulkarm, Rumman - under Area B status (Israeli or international security control, PA civil control and part of Palestine). It would be a sound move in security terms. I think what has happened is that Israel has lost the plot here. To justify the settlements, they are frequently presented as 'defensive necessities'. In military terms, they actually have little value, an invader would by-pass them, plough through them or subdue them. Given that Israel has no chance of keeping the Jordan Valley, isn't it time that real-world security was addressed, rather than false Maginot Line games and political preconditions?

These strange people will never get it right. So instead of talking to Israel they want to talk to the U.S. Is it the U.S. that they want to make peace with.

You'll talk even if the President has to drag you both to Washington and lock you in a room. You'll talk.

There has never been any peace partner on the israeli side. I.Rabin (although settlements champion) was killed by a jew ! Palestinians are asked hundreds of delireous pre-conditions for talks. How about Israel ? should palestinians wait until there are no territories to live on ? what a disgrace.

they come begging and demanding while rockets fly into Israel... Some chutzpah.

......Peace the Pals way, can you tell me please, what peace offerings to the Pals are you talking about. Please explain. Your explanation will be very interesting, no doubt. Salam/Shalom.

Any sort of "omg war loving pals" mentality is completely illogical. It is Israel that is reluctant to return to the state that was when there was peace. If Israel was offered peace in return for ceding half of its pre war territory and declined that "offer" it would not mean that Israel doesn't want peace... It would mean that the Palestinians were making demands that could not possibly lead to peace. The same thing happens when Israel wants to keep the occupied territories (that includes settlements).

The peace process for the Palestinians is about what they can get from the West (money,forced concessions from Israel, boycotts and sanctions on Israel) It's nothing to do with 2 nations living side by side. While the West and the Israeli far-left may be ready to freeze Israeli life for a "hope" that may never be realized, Netanyahu is not. Not all Jews will be frightened by threats of a bi-national state or other calamities. The Torah tells them to settle and settle they will.

They may be starving, but not as much as to be willing to buy a loaf of bread from someone busy eating it. "The most important issue is freezing Israeli settlement construction." (Saeb Erekat, Chief Palestinian negotiator)

The new game of Hamas and Fatah is to play the "poor" Palestinian underdog.Will it go with Obama?

Why is the issue of borders alway avoided? If there were borders everyone would know which state they were building in. Palestinian Jews and Israeli Arabs. Salaam/Shalom

For sixty plus years the Palestinian {and the rest of the Arab countrys surrounding Israel} tried every trick in the world to defeat Israel. Israel is thriving under difficult circumstances. The Palestinian became the flea trying to bite the elephant. They don't want to talk to you, let them to talk to the wall.

While the Buridan ass finds himself in an impossile logical postion and thus cannot decide which way to turn to get food so he instead starves to deaths Palestinians are equally stalled in their tracks unable to decide on peace or war but prepared to continue starving. Sad.

Oh wait, they don't have any.

Under those guidelines it would not be a peace negotiation but the Pals getting everything they want. It would also be the destruction of Israel to give back the land, divide J'lem and allow refugees. The Pals are being offered peace, have been offered peace... wake up. All that they are willing to accept is all of Israel. They now have a US President that will give it to them.

So don't talk and let your people have no hope. This way you can still blame Israel for all your problems.