''The US and the EU have said they would resume financial aid if you recognised Israel, disavowed violence and accepted outstanding agreements between Israel and the PA.
Which Israel would you want me to recognise? Is it Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates? Israel with the occupied Golan Heights? Israel with East Jerusalem? Israel with the settlements? I challenge you to tell me where Israel's borders lie. Or do you want to sell me fish in the sea? …
The 1967 borders.
Does Israel recognise the 1967 borders? Can you tell me of one Israeli government that ever voiced willingness to withdraw to the 1967 borders?
Do you think the US, Israel and Europe are interested in seeing the PA collapse?
I don't think so. My impression is that they want to see a weak Palestinian government that would budge to Israeli dictates and American pressure. In short, they want a government that would act like a quisling entity vis-a-vis Israel, a government that would agree to sell out paramount Palestinian rights in return for money and mere survival.
How much Palestinian money is Israel withholding?
I would say around $300 million.
French President Jacques Chirac has proposed the creation of a trustee fund through which foreign aid could be channelled directly to Palestinian public employee. How do you view this proposal?
We are dealing positively with this proposal. The problem is that the Americans are objecting to it.
Have you received your salary? No.''
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Since March 29th 2006
7 comments:
Free Palestine demo in London tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see if this gets any British media coverage...
Sophia, the Palestinians need to disolve the PA ,let the Israelis pay for their occupation and be subject to the fourth Geneva Conventions. The Palestians had more freedom before the PA was created. The PA surves no purpose now.
The rivalry between the different factions of the PA has the makings of a civil war.
The Oslo Accords are dead and the Israelis are not even following the roadmap.
Besides, the Americans have given up all pretense of brokering a peace settlement and are openly backing Israel's unilateral moves. The PA no longer serves any purpose.
The Palestinians should set up a state in the West Bank and Gaza with borders based on the 1967 boundaries or (my preference) on the internationally recognized 1947 partition. This is the only border that is legitimate and recognized by most nations including Canada and the European countries. We could then negotiate from there. That would satify the Palestinian nationalists.
The ideal for Palestinians and Israelis would be to ask for a binational , secular state with equal rights and justice for everyone. This struggle must be based on civil disobedience and non-violence. There isn't any military or terretorial solution to the Palestinian Question.
Don't dispair, This injustice will not last forever. Palestinians will get their Tutu and Mandela. Change is rapid and the we are witnessing the end of the American economy and empire. Whoever thought that the Jews would 60 years after the Holocaust in Europe become so powerful and successfull.
I would like to write more but I have to answer Mr Totten's lame defense at the "lebanese Political journal".
Issam
Issam
Issam,
Thanks very much for this optimistic and vigourous comment. Today I read in Al-jazeera and I will may be post on it that Abbas's men confiscated 800000 dollars at Egypt Rafah Crossing, which they control, from a Hamas envoy returning from a fundraising mission in the Arab world to pay for Palestinian prisoners.
What a shame ! I agree that the PA should dissolve but what do you do with these thugs (Fatah thugs, including puppet Abbas)who are no longer contemplating a solution for the Palestinian people but who are using their position in the PA to grab money for themselves ? They will not dissolve for money's sake !
I think also that hamas should renounce government in current conditions and return to serve the people as they have always done while waiting for better days...
Issam,
Can you tell me more about this ?
''I would like to write more but I have to answer Mr Totten's lame defense at the "lebanese Political journal". ''
Abbas is rapidly losing legitimacy and the Israelis and the Americans will not throw him a lifeline and if they do it will be the "kiss of death". The more he is embraced by the Americans and Israelis, the weaker he becomes. Even the corrupt Arafat knew he had to use defiance to maintain his popularity with his paople.
Dahlan also needs a Palestinian cover for his thugs and cannot be seen as Israel's SLA.
The Palestinians need to stop playing petty politics and their rivalry. They have to create a national unity government.
As for the palestinian people they have sent a message to their politicians that they have had enough of corruption and will not tolerate it anymore.
Abbas is like king Butalezi and is entering the dustbin of history.
Issam
I have been having a duel with the neocons at the Lebanrse politcal Journal for the last couple of days because of their attck on chomsky and AUB . read the comments at http://lebop.blogspot.com/
It is fun at first but these guys are very slick and disgusting.
Issam
Issam,
I went to the web site and read a part of the exchange. Let them enrage over Chomsky,s visit to AUB. These endoctrined lebanese have not woke up to the truth yet and they won't, even when, the neo-con and Bush will be gone, and they, christian lebanese, will realise that they didn't achieve their ridiculous dream of a christian state inside lebanon for which they killed, they fought and they destroyed their country and they are still doing so. They will be left for a growing Saudi influence in Lebanon, through mini-Hariri, which will determine what is their best interest. What a pity !
I don't even bother reading these fools.
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