Hi. I suggest listening to Democracy Now for full discussion and debate on this critical issue. Heard on Pacifica Radio, some NPR and various indie radio and tv cable networks. I listen to KPFK , 90.7 fm, in LA, 6&9:00 AM. Here's my survey, from various sources. Ed
From: Sid Shniad http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1857642007 The Scotsman: 27-November-07 US hopes peace talks will forge Arab unity against Iran Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem Israeli and Palestinian leaders meet today in Annapolis, Maryland in the most serious effort yet by the US president, George Bush, to relaunch negotiations on resolving the core issues of their conflict - with Iran as a ghost in the room. The one-day conference comes seven years after peace efforts led by the then US president Bill Clinton broke down. The meeting will be attended by at least a dozen Arab states, many of which do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, including Syria. Mr Bush and many of the participants will be hoping to use the gathering to forge co-operation against Iran and its suspected efforts to attain nuclear weapons capability, according to Israeli analysts. "Iran is the strategic subtext of this meeting," said Yossi Alpher, a former director of the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. "The US has finally got interested in dealing seriously with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because of its dilemmas in the Gulf and its need to ensure backing for its policies in Iraq and Iran." Yasser Abed Rabbo, a Palestinian negotiator said the two sides were close yesterday to agreeing on a joint document of principles to guide peace talks that could be announced. Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said negotiations with the Palestinians would have a better chance of a positive outcome than in the past because "we have a lot of participation", an apparent reference to the Arab League's decision to attend. "We and the Palestinians will sit together in Jerusalem and work out something that will be very good." Mr Abbas faced criticism from hardliners back home, with the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip convening its own conference in Gaza City along with Islamic Jihad "to safeguard Palestinian rights." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian supreme leader, said the peace conference was "doomed to failure" and was intended to "give assistance to the Zionists". Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, chided Saudi Arabia for its participation in the meeting. Galia Golan, an international affairs specialist at the Interdisciplinary Centre in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, said: "It turns out that Bush has another agenda for the conference and that is Iran. The conference will go a long way to isolate Iran, which is what many Arab states, Israel and the US would like to see, but where things go from there is unclear." *** From: All the News That Doesn't Fit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [NYTr] Boyle on Annapolis Statement - Nov 27, 2007 Reaction to Annapolis Statement of 27 Nov 2007 by Francis A. Boyle The mass mobilization against Annapolis by Palestinian civil society around the world and especially in occupied Palestine prevented the Palestinian Delegation from selling out the rights of the Palestinian People under international law to Israel and the United States as some of these same delegates had previously done during the Oslo, Norway negotiations of 1993. For once Palestinian People Power triumphed over Israeli/American power politics. But the Palestinians and their supporters must remain ever-vigilant against a permanent sell-out as these so-called "final status" negotiations unfold during the next year. Based upon the Oslo Agreement, the "final status" contemplated by Israel and the United States is a Palestinian Bantustan. To be sure, the Palestinians must expect no meaningful assistance from those quisling governments and organizations that dignified the Annapolis photo-op with their presence. [Professor Francis A. Boyle served as Legal Advisor to the Palestinian Delegation to the Middle East Peace Negotiations and its Chair, Dr. Haidar Abdul Shaffi from 1991 to 1993 and is the author of "Palestine, Palestinians and International Law" (Clarity Press: 2004) ] *** http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/927531.html Gideon Levy: Demands of a thief Haaretz Tue., November 27, 2007 The public discourse in Israel has momentarily awoken from its slumber. "To give or not to give," that is the Shakespearean question - "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions." It is good that initial signs of life in the Israeli public have emerged. It was worth going to Annapolis if only for this reason - but this discourse is baseless and distorted. Israel is not being asked "to give" anything to the Palestinians; it is only being asked to return - to return their stolen land and restore their trampled self-respect, along with their fundamental human rights and humanity. This is the primary core issue, the only one worthy of the title, and no one talks about it anymore. No one is talking about morality anymore. Justice is also an archaic concept, a taboo that has deliberately been erased from all negotiations. Two and a half million people - farmers, merchants, lawyers, drivers, daydreaming teenage girls, love-smitten men, old people, women, children and combatants using violent means for a just cause - have all been living under a brutal boot for 40 years. Meanwhile, in our cafes and living rooms the conversation is over giving or not giving. Lawyers, philosophers, writers, lecturers, intellectuals and rabbis, who are looked upon for basic knowledge about moral precepts, participate in this distorted discourse. What will they tell their children - after the occupation finally becomes a nightmare of the past - about the period in which they wielded influence? What will they say about their role in this? Israeli students stand at checkpoints as part of their army reserve duty, brutally deciding the fate of people, and then some rush off to lectures on ethics at university, forgetting what they did the previous day and what is being done in their names every single day. Intellectuals publish petitions, "to make concessions" or "not to make concessions," diverting attention from the core issue. There are stormy debates about corruption - whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is corrupt and how the Supreme Court is being undermined. But there is no discussion of the ultimate question: Isn't the occupation the greatest and most terrible corruption to have taken root here, overshadowing everything else? Security officials are terrified about what would happen if we removed a checkpoint or released prisoners, like the whites in South Africa who whipped up a frenzy of fear about the "great slaughter" that would ensue if blacks were granted their rights. But these are not legitimate questions: The incarceration must be ended and the myriad of political prisoners should be released unconditionally. Just as a thief cannot present demands - neither preconditions nor any other terms - to the owner of the property he has robbed, Israel cannot present demands to the other side as long as the situation remains as it is. Security? We must defend ourselves by defensive means. Those who do not believe that the only security we will enjoy will come from ending the occupation and from peace can entrench themselves in the army, and behind walls and fences. But we have no right to do what we are doing: Just as no one would conceive of killing the residents of an entire neighborhood, to harass and incarcerate it because of a few criminals living there, there is no justification for abusing an entire people in the name of our security. The question of whether ending the occupation would threaten or strengthen Israel's security is irrelevant. There are not, and cannot be, any preconditions for restoring justice. No one will discuss this at Annapolis. Even if the real core issues were raised, they would focus on secondary questions - borders, Jerusalem and even refugees. But that would be escaping the main issue. After 40 years, one might have expected that the real core issue would finally be raised for honest and bold discussion: Does Israel have the moral right to continue the occupation? The world should have asked this long ago. The Palestinians should have focused only on this. And above all, we, who bear the guilt, should have been terribly troubled by the answer to this question. *** From: "Michael Hathaway" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Dear Friends --- It is CRUCIAL for any serious longterm hope in the Middle East that the United States stop its grossly and disastrously one-sided behaviour in Israel-Palestinian issues, and become a genuine honest broker, which we've only pretended all these decades. Bush has been even worse, SUPPORTING the most right wing aggressive and hate-provoking tendencies in Israel. This is not good for the long term interests of the region, but also not for the longterm good of Israel itself. Tonight the supremely articulate and sincere Palestinian Saed(?) EREKAT will be interviewed on 60 MINUTES (CBS-check for time.) I don't know what will be asked and what he will say, but he is usually very good. He and Hanan Ashwari are easily the most eloquent and articulate spokespeople I've heard in this vast, difficult subject. The most amazing thing to me is that he is able to speak directly and unequivocally about the Israeli outrages of 50+ years in HONEST-YET-MILD ways. He is also much more specific---and I must say HONEST--- than any of the Israeli spokespeople I've heard over the years. Sharon?! Begin?! Dayan?! (The most moving Israeli speakers have been a whole series of retired and REPENTENT chiefs of their intelligence agency Mossad.) Gwen Ifill's interview tuesday with Olmert was pathetic softball practice---she didn't challenge him on a single omission or misleading statement he made. She did not even provide a larger context. She simply set him up for pat answers #1 through #5. Perhaps I am the only person still watching 60 Minutes, under the influence of what it used to be when it began. FAR MORE IMPORTANT: Last, if you haven't yet read The Israel Lobby, you really must get it and begin. It is a masterful, careful work by two widely respected professors which is, Thank God, beginning the long-postponed debate about the U.S.'es dangerously unfair attitudes and behaviour in the region. Our mainstream media present the right-wing Israeli views as fact, and avoid almost all genuine discussion, such that Americans are vastly ignorant. MOST OF THE WORLD KNOWS THESE IMPORTANT THINGS that we DON'T. This ignorance could most easily be overcome with a crash course in studying this book, which collects so much crucial information in one place. In its very mildness and restraint it is a SHOCKING book. We have been partners in a great evil for a long time. Michael --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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