Sometimes
The government of Gaza:
“The nation does not need a lesson on democracy from Obama,” said Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, Sami Abu-Zuhri. “Rather, Obama is the one who needs the lesson given his absolute endorsement of Israel’s crimes and his refusal to condemn Israel’s occupation…We will not recognize the Israeli occupation under any circumstances”
The government of Israel:
Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities. The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines — because these lines are indefensible…before 1967, Israel was all of nine miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington Beltway. And these were not the boundaries of peace; they were the boundaries of repeated wars, because the attack on Israel was so attractive…
Israel cannot negotiate with a Palestinian government that is backed by Hamas…President Abbas has a simple choice. He has to decide if he negotiates or keeps his pact with Hamas, or makes peace with Israel…
The third reality is that the Palestinian refugee problem will have to be resolved in the context of a Palestinian state, but certainly not in the borders of Israel. The Arab attack in 1948 on Israel resulted in two refugee problems — Palestinian refugee problem and Jewish refugees, roughly the same number, who were expelled from Arab lands. Now, tiny Israel absorbed the Jewish refugees, but the vast Arab world refused to absorb the Palestinian refugees. Now, 63 years later, the Palestinians come to us and they say to Israel, accept the grandchildren, really, and the great grandchildren of these refugees, thereby wiping out Israel’s future as a Jewish state. So it’s not going to happen. Everybody knows it’s not going to happen. And I think it’s time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly it’s not going to happen.
Sometimes when a leader charts a course that is roundly rejected by both sides, he is a bold visionary. Then again sometimes there are leaders who are so caught up in their ideology or relf-regard that they don’t know much and don’t care much about the history that informs our time. Feel free to choose what the story is here.
May 22nd, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Since the 1967 armistice line merely marked the point at which the Israeli military stopped its advance, I’m unsure under what provision of so-called international law, custom and usage, or common sense, it constitutes a border. I think I’m going to go with “caught up in their ideology…”
The Israelis’ one, non-negotiable demand is recognition of their right to exist.
The so-called Palestinians’ (actually descendants of Egyptian and Jordanian citizens made homeless by their governments) one, non-negotiable demand is that Jews be exterminated and Israel be obliterated.
What’s to negotiate? How is this hard for Obama to understand?