Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference (1 Viewer)

[SaintsFan11]

Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel.

The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

“As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,” an official said. “This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month.”


http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Baker_1.htm

 

[blackadder]

Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel.

The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

“As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,” an official said. “This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month.”


http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Baker_1.htm

Just a matter of time until you hear the screams of "anti-semite!"

When you got old school Democrats and Republicans in agreement on the root of the problem, what does that say?


Rabbi Lerner thanks Jimmy Carter:

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/12/06/thank_you_jimmy_carter.php
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[SaintsFan11]

Just a matter of time until you hear the screams of "anti-semite!"

When you got old school Democrats and Republicans in agreement on the root of the problem, what does that say?

I like the idea. Israel is the main source of conflict in the region. If we're going to be defending them, we ought to hold them accountable for their actions so that we're not consequently hurting ourselves.

 

[blackadder]

I like the idea. Israel is the main source of conflict in the region. If we're going to be defending them, we ought to hold them accountable for their actions so that we're not consequently hurting ourselves.

Everybody knows this but Isreal has been allowed to slide for way too long.

The settlements and the land grabs have to be stopped and reversed to some extent before there is any chance of some semblamce of a "normal" existence of opportunity and progress among Palestinian Arabs, which will provide a more hopeful future and reduce the number that resort to violence.

Allowing Israel to continue to bulldoze homes and steal land helps nobody except the nuts who want to redeem and purify "Eretz Yisrael," which was never part of the deal when Israel was originally established. It only inflames the situation and puts American interests at risk.

Israel is an independent country. If they want to constantly stir the Arab hornets nest, that is their choice. But we need not pick up the tab for it and sheild them from the consequences.

Theivery on the American taxpayer's dime:

West Bank Settlements Often Use Private Palestinian Land, Study Says

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; Page A17

JERUSALEM, Nov. 21 -- An Israeli advocacy group has found that 39 percent of the land used by Jewish settlements in the West Bank is private Palestinian property, which the organization contends is a violation of international and Israeli law guaranteeing property rights in the occupied territories.

In a report released here Tuesday, the Settlement Watch project of Peace Now also disclosed that much of the land that Israeli officials have said would remain part of the Jewish state under any final peace agreement is private Palestinian property.

That includes some of the large settlement blocs inside the barrier that Israel is building to separate Israelis from the Palestinian population in the West Bank. The report states that 86 percent of Maale Adumim on Jerusalem's eastern edge sits on private Palestinian land. A little more than 35 percent of the settlement of Ariel, which cuts deep into the northern West Bank, is also on private property.

Peace Now is an advocacy group that supports the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and contends that Jewish settlements in the West Bank, where roughly 250,000 Israelis live, represent a major obstacle to achieving one.
Israel's government has long maintained that the settlements, developed in large part with public money, sit on untitled property known as "state land" or on property of unclear legal status. Israeli courts have ruled that unauthorized outposts erected on private Palestinian property must be razed, although those orders are rarely carried out.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/21/AR2006112100482.html

Nobody but the right wing religious Zionists accepts the leglity of any of this.

 

[SaintJ]

With all the criticism of Israel, and I'll do it myself from time to time, I feel obligated to point out that Israel actually does have free elections and the rule of law, as well as an open press that allows watchdog groups of Israelis to advocate for the Palestinians in the West Bank.

On the other hand, you have a lot of dictatorships, one-party states (same thing), constitutional monarchies (same thing), principalities (same thing), emirates (same thing) and theocracies (not quite the same thing but close in practice) running pretty much from Morocco to Pakistan. Just sayin'.

And here's a crazy idea: You want democracy? Partition Iraq into three ethnic/sectarian states. You've got a much better chance of ending up with two or three democracies than if you indulge in the status quo; the homogeneity of the societies will take away all that reflexive sectarian or separatist voting.

 

[covingtondog]

I kinda like Israel.

 

[gboudx]

I kinda like Israel.

The company I work for is HQ'ed near Tel Aviv. And I like my paycheck.

 

[blackadder]

The company I work for is HQ'ed near Tel Aviv. And I like my paycheck.

Tel Aviv ain't in the West Bank. Your paycheck is fine whether they are in there or not.

 

[Random Fan]

Baker is 100% right.

 

[System Shock]

Baker wants Israel excluded from regional conference

The White House has been examining a proposal by James Baker to launch a Middle East peace effort without Israel.

The peace effort would begin with a U.S.-organized conference, dubbed Madrid-2, and contain such U.S. adversaries as Iran and Syria. Officials said Madrid-2 would be promoted as a forum to discuss Iraq's future, but actually focus on Arab demands for Israel to withdraw from territories captured in the 1967 war. They said Israel would not be invited to the conference.

“As Baker sees this, the conference would provide a unique opportunity for the United States to strike a deal without Jewish pressure,” an official said. “This has become the most hottest proposal examined by the foreign policy people over the last month.”


http://www.insightmag.com/Media/MediaManager/Baker_1.htm

Finally a man with a firm grasp of the situation, who is looking for a solution, not persuaded by the religious right.

I like James Baker. I liked him before and I like him better now. I thought he should've run for president back in 1987.

 

[blackadder]

Finally a man with a firm grasp of the situation, who is looking for a solution, not persuaded by the religious right.

I like James Baker. I liked him before and I like him better now. I thought he should've run for president back in 1987.

He gets it and always has. He's got a tough road to hoe up against AIPAC and the pro-Likud faction, whose goal is to slowly annex all of "Greater Israel" (without the Arabs that happen to live there).

They and the neocons will work fervently to undermine any progress on this that could lead to a comprehensive settlement for the region. They have done so successfully for 50 years so there it is entirely possible that they will outlast or outflank Baker and the status quo will persist.

And that leaves Americans sitting under a bullseye.