Abbas Announces Death of the Peace Process, Blames Israel

Palestinian Authority President Abbas announced in a conference in Ramallah, “The peace process is clinically dead and the Israeli side is definitely the one responsible. The ball is in their court.” Just days before his meeting with United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and putting further emphasis on this not so surprising announcement, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat added the following speaking to AFP on Sunday, “I was assigned by President Abbas to inform US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of our position on resuming negotiations once Israel commits to stopping settlement activity and release of prisoners, among other obligations. These are not preconditions but obligations and Israel must abide by them. We hope the American administration compels the Israeli government to fulfill its obligations in order to get the peace process back on track.”

Before anybody starts digging a grave for the obviously moribund peace process, shall we look a little deeper at exactly what was said, what was omitted, and what it is exactly that Mahmoud Abbas and his fellow conspirators are attempting to achieve by all this bluster. The first thing of note is that these grand statements and high drama come immediately before a meeting with Secretary of State Clinton. So, the first possibility is this was all setting the table for guiding the talks with Secretary Clinton in a desired direction. The crucial phrase was given to Saeb Erakat to relay and were, “…resuming negotiations once Israel commits to stopping settlement activity and release of prisoners, among other obligations. These are not preconditions but obligations and Israel must abide by them.” There are two items to note in this excerpt from Mr. Erakat. The demand that these are not “preconditions” but rather are “obligations” and as such Israel is bound to meet these requirements before anybody can even start to talk of the two sides meeting and negotiations restarting. That begs a few questions starting with where does this set of obligations derive from? Were these parts and parcel of any agreement between the two sides? Was this a binding resolution of the Security Council of the United Nations or similar decree from any other body holding the power to make these demands upon Israel? The answer is no. These are an ever lengthening set of demands that appear to sprout from the furtive imagination of one Mahmoud Abbas. Israel not only has never agreed to these stipulations, they have never discussed such things in all of their negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. And that leads us to the second consideration of what exactly is meant by “…Israel commits to stopping settlement activity and release of prisoners, among other obligations.” The idea of stopping settlement activity was a misstep, intentional or out of pure ignorance, made by the President of the United States Barack Obama which did lead to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu actually committing to place a one-time moratorium on settlement construction for ten months. During that period, Mahmoud Abbas twittered away the first nine months and only in the final three weeks made any appearance of an effort to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. The end result was President Abbas demanding that the American President force the Israelis to extend the settlement freeze for an indeterminate amount of time until Abbas judged that the negotiations were completed. That demand never had any chance in the world and President Obama did not even back that demand.

About the rest where it adds, “…release of prisoners, among other obligations.” The release of prisoners is ridiculous as Israel recently released a large number of prisoners, over one thousand in total. But, needless to say, in the world of Mahmoud Abbas such does not count and Israel must release hundreds of prisoners each and every time he requests or they are obstructing the negotiations. The best part is the open ended “among other obligations.” This wonderful catch-all phrase fits the Mahmoud Abbas negotiation method perfectly and defines his approach for the past years explicitly. This allows Mr. Abbas to add item after item after item just in the case where Israel might decide to call his bluff and meet the stated demands. These other obligations inevitably will lead to the one deal breaker Mr. Abbas keeps in his back pocket for those emergencies when he is caught without a new demand, that is the “Right of return” where he insists that Israel absorb four and a half million or more so-called Palestinian refugees. We will get into the unique definition of Palestinian refugee in a moment. Other standard demands that he currently has been including in this list include but are not limited to the following; release of all Palestinian prisoners who have been incarcerated from before the year 2000 (this consists almost exclusively of prisoners who have murdered multiple Israeli civilians and are serving multiple life sentences, or put another way, the worst of the worst), surrender of all of the Old City of Jerusalem including the Temple Mount and the Western Wall (which then would be made off limits in practice if not in fact through violence such as is often seen when Jews visit Jacobs Tomb in Hevron), usage of the 1949 Armistice Lines as the starting point for the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations, and others. The latest and most mind boggling of President Mahmoud Abbas demands was introduced in the last week or so when he now demands that the Palestinian Authority, fresh off being recognized by UNESCO as a member country, have the right to import weapons. Be assured, he will claim to the press that he intends only to upgrade the pitiful weapons his security forces and police are forced to use currently and nothing really serious. The Palestinian police and security forces are armed with two year old M-16s, a commensurate number equipped with M-209 grenade launchers, M-60 30 caliber belt-fed machine guns, 9MM side arms, and whatever older weapons they have from unofficial sources which include many Kalashnikov assault rifles, Russian and other RPGs, and when including the terror arm of Mahmoud Abbas’s PLO, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, very likely anti-tank launchers and other and various crew served weapons including small and medium range mortars, Grad rockets, Katyusha rockets, enhanced Katyusha rockets, Qassam rockets, and other various mines, explosives grenades and indirect fire weapons. Yet, Mr. Abbas sees the need to enhance their armory with whatever he can drag across the border with assistance from Iran, Russia, possibly some European countries, and whomever else might be willing to trust him to take the weapons now and pay them some time in the future. And this is also an obligation he requires of Israel despite their never having agreed to anything even remotely resembling such.

Now for the promised definition of a Palestinian Refugee. Where in the real world, that is anywhere not part of the Palestinian influence and support groups, the refugees are cared for by the UNHCR which is tasked with caring for refugees and making every possible attempt to arrange for the refugees to return to their homes after any crisis has ended or be absorbed into an accepting country in cases where the refugees are the result of a war or agreement which changes state boundaries. One example were the hundreds of millions of Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu refugees who found themselves on the opposite side of the formation of India and Pakistan and desired to be relocated to their respective states. Oddly enough, today all of those refugees have been relocated and are living as citizens within one or the other country. Pakistan was founded approximately one year earlier than was Israel and due to much the same problems of religiously motivated warfare between Muslim and Hindu people as compared to Muslim and Jews in the founding of Israel. The main responsibility for UNHCR is to resettle and resolve all refugee situations. This was totally unacceptable to the Arab and Muslim states which desired to retain as many refugees as possible to use as a political bludgeon against Israel. They desired a way to actually increase the numbers of refugees. Within a decade of the founding of Israel, approximately six-hundred and fifty-thousand to seven-thousand Arabs were displaced from their homes within Israel by the Israeli War for survival after Israel was attacked by more than five Arab neighbors the day after her founding. The vast majority of these refugees had willingly abandoned their homes believing the promises of the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husayni who promised them a quick war where the Jews would be massacred and they could return to their homes and take of the spoils of victory. During the same period many Arab and Muslim countries either forced their Jewish population to leave or the Jews fled extreme violence and pogroms leaving behind their homes, businesses, and any wealth they were unable to carry. These Jews numbered over seven-hundred-fifty-thousand and some estimates place the number near to nine-hundred-thousand. Today there are no Jewish refugees left from that time and even millions of Russian Jewish refugees have been absorbed by Israel and Israel is in the process of absorbing hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian and Indian Jews currently. Today the number of Palestinian Refugees is estimated at somewhere over four-and-a-half-million. The United Nations went so far as to have an agency just for the Palestinian refugees separate from all other refugees. This organization is UNRWA and has the charge to increase the number of those considered Palestinian refugees by any method possible. Unlike other refugees who had to actually have been alive and lost their homes at the time of whatever event caused their refugee status, Palestinian refugees are not so tasked. If either parent is a Palestinian refugee, then the child is a Palestinian refugee, and their children will be refugees and their children will also be Palestinian refugees. Under the care of UNRWA there exist millions of second, third, fourth, and possible starting to be fifth generation Palestinian refugees. The sole solution the world has been conditioned to allow for these refugees is their incorporation into Israeli society in order to overwhelm the Jewish population of Israel and thus conquer Israel through sheer numbers. This is the intent of the demand for the “Right of Return” for Palestinian refugees. It is simply another imitation of the Jewish laws for the return from the Diaspora of Jews to Israel which is the “Law of Right of Return”. The Palestinians have even now begun to refer to the Palestinian refugees as being the Palestinian Diaspora in order to make them appear to have the same heritage to return to their ancient homeland. To initially qualify as a Palestinian refugee one need not even have been living within the Middle East and definitely not within what became Israel to qualify. All one need claim is that they resided in the British Mandate area for two years between 1940 and 1949 and they became Palestinian refugees. Even if they lived in Palo Alto, California in the United States during the 1948-1949 Israeli Arab War but had lived in the British Mandate from 1941 to 1944 they became Palestinian refugees as have their children and grand-children on and on. This is just the tip of the iceberg that is the scandal that is the Palestinian refugees. There are no Palestinian refugee camps within Israel; they all exist either in Palestinian autonomous areas or in Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon etc. President Assad has numerous times shelled some of the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria during the civil war that is ongoing. In Lebanon the Palestinians are forbidden from most forms of employment and are not allowed to own land or even rent an apartment and their camps are guarded to keep them within, not to protect them. Jordan was the sole country to grant Palestinian refugees citizenship. Many of those citizens were stripped of that privilege after the Black September uprising by Yasser Arafat when he attempted a coup in Jordan against the King. The Palestinians remain as refugees multiple generations after their original loss of their homes in a war they did not start and neither did the Israelis start, but that was propagated in the Palestinians’ names by their brother Arabs and Muslims. That is an introduction to the reality that is the Palestinian refugee problem. Even under Mahmoud Abbas in the Palestinian Authority areas of autonomy the Palestinian refugees are contained in squalor of their refugee camps in greater poverty than their brethren who feel nothing for them and only wish to use them to destroy Israel.

Beyond the Cusp

What the Media is not Telling You About Israel and West Bank

The mainstream media in Europe, the United States, around the world, and even throughout Israel is keeping a dirty little secret under wraps as to admit to its existence would ruin the perfect image of the poor and downtrodden Palestinians being victimized by the big, bad, mean Israelis. The secret has numerous facets of which I will recount some of the most flagrant examples of the conspiracy to hide the truth. Every once in a while there will be a report that a few rockets or mortars were fired from Gaza into southern Israel. These reports are usually forced into the public eye due to injuries or the miracles which happen with regularity where the round hits a schoolyard or smashes into a classroom and either does not explode or explodes but the children had just been moved to another location in the school for other activities. The former is reported as when there are Israelis hospitalized or worse from these attacks the particular attack cannot be kept secret any longer. With the miracles which have occurred more times than I can count, are reported partially to prove that these attacks are harmless as nobody was injured despite a school or home or other structure being hit and partially destroyed. What is almost never reported unless you read <a href=http://www.israelnationalnews.com/ target=blank>Arutz Sheva</a> or live in Sederot or other community near the Gaza border is the affect the often daily rocket attacks and the sounding of the Code Red sirens has on the people who live under this constant threat, especially the older citizens and the children. There have been numerous reports made by healthcare officials and psychologists about the stress induced problems, especially on the children many of whom have developed sleep disorders among other problems.

Along the same locations there is also the sniper fire and the placement of IEDs (improvised explosive devices) near the fence between Gaza and southern Israel where these are used to ambush IDF personnel and vehicles which monitor the border road. The threats which at one time only included those Israelis living within a few miles of Gaza have now been extended with the longer range and larger payload carrying rockets to now reach to all of Ashkelon, Beer-Sheba and now Eilat as similar rocket and mortar attack have begun to be launched out of the Sinai into even more of the south of Israel. As the terror groups within Gaza receive more and more of the stronger, larger and more accurate armaments the areas of Israel coming under threat and the ability to make more accurate selection of targets continues to increase. Soon we will see these attacks from within Gaza reaching all the way to Tel Aviv at which time the media will have no choice but to cover such attacks. But in the meantime, as long as the attacks are only targeting some of the poorest towns kibbutzim and developments, the news will willfully ignore them as they are not striking anything the elites find valuable. Soon they are going to get the rudest of awakenings and will be asking the question, “Where did this come from and why did we not know about this threat?” What will the media say then?

On to the other front which gets an even less respect and reporting from the press; the area they call the West Bank instead of using its real names of Judea and Samaria. The purpose of using the term West Bank in place of Judea and Samaria is to keep hidden the historical relevance these lands had as the heart of the ancient Jewish lands. I mean Judea, how can Judea be anything but Jewish, it is the root from which the term Judaism originates. Also, by changing the name they are able to blur the full meaning and intents of the myriad of papers, declarations, decrees, treaties, and inclusionary terms in founding documents all of which distinctly place all of Judea and Samaria as well as all of the rest of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea as the intended lands for the Jewish homeland. Truth be told, originally the Jewish homeland also included all of Jordan. But as that was signed off on in an agreement that the area today known as Jordan and originally Transjordan would be the Arab Palestine whiles the remaining lands west of the Jordan River were to be Jewish Palestine. The media avoids any reference to the original definition of who was a Palestinian. Before 1964 if a person was referred to as a Palestinian, they were Jewish. The Arabs were called Egyptian, Syrian, or simply Arabs. On rare occasions they were referred to as Arab Palestinian, but never as simply Palestinian. During the World War II the Palestinian Brigade consisted of Jewish soldiers fighting with the British. The Arab forces that entered World War II did entered on the side of the Axis powers, in particular with Germany.

In the lands of Judea and Samaria there have been escalating attacks made on Jewish motorists by rock and Molotov throwing, carjacking, and sniper fire. The rock and carjacking have become daily occurrences which the mainstream media chooses to ignore. Even when they have covered it, the coverage has only included the initial findings of the authorities which are most often that the vehicle was in a single vehicle accident. It is often later that the attack is reclassified as a terrorist attack but why change the story at such a late date. Even when one of these rock attacks murdered a father and infant son, Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan, the authorities listed this event as reckless driving. This determination was made despite the small amounts of evidence to the contrary such as the large rock in the back of the van, the large hole in the windshield just above the steering wheel about the same diameter as the rock and the smashed in face of the father with an indentation about the same size as the aforementioned rock. It took over a day and a half before the Police finally surrendered to the findings that a thrown rock may have caused the accident that tragically took these innocent Israeli lives. One such rock attack was filmed and despite the evidence that the car was swerving to avoid the attack, the driver was subsequently arrested and charged with attempted murder for striking an Arab youth who had run straight in front of the car and thrown a rock point-blank at the windshield. The charges were eventually dropped. But why is the press ignoring all these attacks? Whatever could be their purpose?

This is where the truth gets really sickening. Why does the media refuse to report there are daily occurrences of terrorist activities against Israelis, usually Jewish Israelis but not exclusively as some Arab Christian and even Arab Muslims have ended up on the receiving end of these rock attacks simply due to their having the wrong type of license plates (Israeli plates)? They avoid reporting this for two reasons, it would be too repetitive with reports saying the same basic thing just sometimes differing locations each day, and it would spoil the narrative. What narrative you ask? The narratives that the Palestinians are always the victims and on the receiving end of harsh and cruel Israeli oppression while the Jews live the high life with no regard for the Palestinians. The Palestinians have to be portrayed in the kindest and most flattering light while the Israeli “settlers” must be portrayed as interlopers stealing the land and the food out of the Palestinians’ mouths. It must be shown that the Arabs are having their land stolen by Jews while the IDF stands by with their rifles forcing the Palestinians off their native soil. It can never come to light that the vast majority of these people being referred to as the Palestinians are also recent emigrants who came to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea seeking better employment which was available as the Zionists turned swamps and desolate wastelands into profitable farms and industry. The most common names of “Palestinian” families are also very common names of Egyptian and Syrian families and if you research the vast majority of the so-called Palestinians you would find they have numerous relatives back in the homeland from which their names indicate is their actual heritage.

One last little item which will be another example of the truth you have not been told. Most have heard that name which strikes the notes of oppression of the Palestinians. That word is “Naqba” which means catastrophe and is currently used to denote the Palestinian response to Israeli Independence Day. But this was not the original use of the word Naqba. It had a much earlier and vastly different meaning which had absolutely nothing to do with Israel, the Jews, and was used when Palestinian equaled a Jew living in the British Mandate Lands. Simply try a little experiment and search the terms, Naqba Syria France Britain 1920, and let the true and original meaning of the word Naqba be revealed. You will find that the Naqba was the division of greater Syria between France and Britain thus cutting the southern Syrians off from their beloved Damascus. The commonly thought of meaning it denotes today did not come into being until the earliest the late 1970s and mainstream usage in the 1990s. Like so many of the terms and presumed history and facts surrounding the “Palestinians”, it is all stolen from other times, peoples, and histories. The one thing that remains true and cannot be challenged is that the only country in all of recorded history to reside between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea with Jerusalem as its Capital has been the Jewish State whether it was known as Israel or Judea.

Beyond the Cusp

Needed Actions to End Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process Stalemate

In the vast majority of cases, initiatives to jump-start the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks are marked by the proposal for Israel to start by making some grand unilateral sacrifices to show their desire for peace. With this almost always the first demand, it is no wonder the Palestinian Authority refuses to come to the table. The Palestinian leadership is totally aware that the more intransient they act, the greater the demands on Israel to give land away and free terrorists in order to make talks more attractive. I have news for everyone, it is not working. Why should the Palestinians come and negotiate when by not negotiating and appearing for an annual photo-op before walking away, using whatever excuse they can dream up, is rewarded with the West and Israel’s “friends” making the Palestinian demands for them, and without their need to reciprocate. Usually, it has historically been some new demand that the world will soon agree that Israel needs to grant the Palestinians as an enticement to negotiate.

So, what we have watched since 1967? It has been a repetition of the same actions while expecting different outcomes. Albert Einstein referred to this process as proof of insanity, and in this case he was dead-on accurate. The only recent change has come thanks to President Obama who has made a habit of inventing new demands that the Palestinians never even asked for or expected. A complete building freeze beyond the Green Line, the return to the 1949 Armistice Lines, and forcing Israel to divide Jerusalem are prime examples. George W. Bush, under the advice of Secretary of State Rice and Defense Secretary Gates, came up with a real winner when he pressured Israel to cede Gaza unilaterally to the Palestinian Authority. Many have pointed out that Israel received nothing in return for this gesture, but they are not entirely correct on this matter. Israel has received plenty for surrendering Gaza and forcing the Jewish residents to leave their homes, businesses, property, and uproot their lives for promises that are still to be met and years of misery. Israel has been on the receiving end of a near constant daily barrage of rockets and mortars while having Gilad Shalit kidnapped and held under unknown conditions for over five years now. Unfortunate Gilad has not been allowed any contact with his family, been denied Red Cross visitations to assure his treatment is humane, and, I fear, is very likely dead by now. That is the grand prize Israel received by complying with President George W. Bush, a person often said to be Israel’s greatest friend ever. Really?

So, what might be tried to encourage actual serious and productive negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. By now it should be obvious that pressuring Israel while handling the Palestinians with reverential deference is not working. First, politicians stop using support for Israel as a campaign promise when you have no intention of fully honoring obligations and treaties entered into by the United States and instead your support for Israel becomes we want two states for two peoples living side by side in peace and prosperity. Give me a break! Look up some history and you will find that the United States agreed to enforce the enacting of the Balfour Declaration and the San Remo Conference when they ratified the Anglo-American Convention of December 3, 1924. By this agreement, the United States is party to a treaty that declared that a Jewish State was to be formed from the remainder of the British Mandate after the formation of Transjordan. This should be binding the United States to insist that Israel’s borders are from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Since this was established through a treaty, it has the force of law, not the force of a possible suggestion. But, since remembering one’s obligations from so long ago is no longer expected of the world, as these treaties were signed off on by Great Britain, France, Italy, and Japan with the United States included in the San Remo Conference in an advisory role; and were subsequently affirmed by the United States with their signing of the Anglo-American Convention, this all does not matter any longer, that was so, so long ago. So, what now?

Perhaps we need to simplify matters concerning the Palestinians. First off, disband UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) and place the Palestinian refugees that meet the United Nations general definition of a refugee to be administered by UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and simply inform those who do not fit the true United Nations definition of a refugee that it is well past time they took up the care of their own lives. Why is it that the world made a completely separate agency simply to care for, protect, house, feed, and redefine the term “refugee” in order to perpetuate infinitely and forever a refugee population beyond those people who were truly displaced, whether by their own actions or by force of others’ actions?

Whose great idea was it that not only the original 650,000 approximated refugees resulting from a variety of forces and influences resultant from the 1948-9 Arab Israeli War would also include their progeny henceforth and forever? I realize it makes for great job security for the UNRWA employees, but it does nothing to solve the refugee problem, it can only exacerbate the problem, which is exactly what we are witness to today. Once UNRWA is eliminated and solely the real and actual surviving refugees have been determined will a solution be feasible. It is beyond ridiculous to expect Israel to deal with the potential influx of four to five million refugees when the original refugee numbers were barely more than 15% of the current running total. During around the same period of time, in the aftermath of World War II, there were numerous other refugee problems which were all addressed by the UNHCR and those refugees have all been resettled and their children and their grandchildren, and even some great grandchildren are living normal lives in their respective new or old countries. The one which resettled Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists between India and Pakistan was of such a magnitude that the numbers who were transferred dwarfed all other refugee problems of that era, yet every refugee from that great migration and their families are today safely settled in either India, Pakistan or wherever in the world they may have migrated. The sole perpetuated refugee problem is that of the Palestinians. Why?

Now we are entering the real heart of this dilemma. The reason the Palestinians were treated separately was because their brethren, the very same peoples from whence they originated, refused to accept them or any responsibility for their welfare and chose instead to intentionally make their lives a misery that could be placed at the Israeli Jews’ feet. The Palestinians were made into a weapon of war, a living grudge and propaganda tool with which to batter the international community with in order to defile the world image of Israel. This is the dirty little secret that nobody dares mention, for to do so is heresy and brings immediate refutation and rejection. The reason this is treated as the third rail is because to admit the truth of the complicity of the rest of the world in the charade, this psychological Jihad against Israel, would reveal exactly how deep into the mire supposedly enlightened societies will go to deny the Jewish people the same rights as normal people. Yes, I differentiated between Jews and normal people as that is what is the truth of the actions of the world against Israel, a denial of the humanity and likeness of the Jewish people to the rest of humanity.

The true tragedy and sickness is that for many Palestinians, their family, clans, tribes, and histories lie with the people on the outside of the fences and barbed wire, the same people who keep them in squalor and severe poverty simply as a political weapon against Jews. So, yes, the first step is to allow the Palestinians rights to return to their original homes and families and be treated as equals in their own lands. That is the other dirty little secret is that the Palestinians are actually Syrian and Egyptian with a few Iraqi, Turkish, Saudi, and other Arab people who immigrated into the areas where the Jews had made new jobs available. This means that the Palestinians arrived subsequent to the Jews and due to the economic condition created by the early Zionists. Many of these Arab immigrants also remained in their homes during the 1948-9 War and are today full citizens of Israel with identical rights and privileges as the Jewish Israelis. Some are doctors working side by side with Jewish doctors. Some are Judges including one who served on the Israeli Supreme Court during his judgeship. There are a number of Arabs currently serving in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset.

And for the last little secret that everybody always fails to mention; there is not one Palestinian refugee being held in a refugee camp within the areas controlled by Israel and the IDF. Every single Palestinian refugee camp is under Arab ownership, control, rule, and oppression. Israel does not contain a single refugee camp with Israeli guards. The refugee camps exist in areas under Palestinian Authority control, Hamas control, Lebanese control, Syrian control, and used to be under Jordanian control until the PLO attempted a coup against the Jordanian Crown who sent them into exile in Lebanon where they again tried to overthrow the government and the leadership ended up in Tripoli while members of the PLO formed the core of what became Hezballah.

Those are the truths you will almost never hear, but please, research them and learn and you will find it is not the Israelis or the Jews who keep the Palestinian refugees in camps; it is their brothers and sisters in the Arab countries of their origin, and in many cases, the country of their birth and ancestry. Think about that for a while. Wake up to the truth and let it be known by all.

Beyond the Cusp