Meanwhile, Ariel Sharon has indicated he might meet with Abu Mazen after US Secretary of State Colin Powell's upcoming visit to the region. Despite Burns’ call on Israel to "…ease its military clampdown on Palestinians," the Israeli government maintained it will continue its assaults as long as there was no "Palestinian battle against terror." With such blatantly uncompromising signals emanating from Sharon’s government, it seems clear from the onset that this peace "process" will be as much an exercise in asymmetrical negotiations as its predecessor, unless the US administration steps up its pressure on Israel. The Israeli government is clearly bent on maximizing its territorial and political gains at the expense of a just solution for the Palestinians, which the US administration must actively resist to fully embrace its responsibility as a credible peace broker and mediator. A new era of painful negotiations is sure to follow, but if the peace process is going to have a fighting chance it must not be characterized by unilateral Israeli decisions and declarations, procrastinations, illegal settlement expansion, land confiscation, home demolition, and more human rights violations, ultimately taking the situation into another tragic phase of un-compromised killing and bloodshed. Without a real understanding that there is no alternative to Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories as the only viable solution to the conflict, the region is doomed to an endless and vicious cycle of violence. The Palestinian people's expectations of this political process are engulfed by suspicion and wariness. After 31 months of economic and social strangulation, political dead-ends, and extreme hopelessness, Israel is betting on a nonviable solution to suffice. The belief among Israeli hawkish leaders is that after two and a half years of continuous suffering, the Palestinians (people and leadership) will be more prone to compromise, even on fundamental issues. This demonstrates Israel’s own theory of relativity; making the Palestinians contemplate what used to be unimaginable! This foolishly ignores the fact that Palestinians have embedded in their consciousness a hope of a free and viable national state, which can not be repressed by anyone nor abandoned until there is a just solution. Read More...
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 27/05/2013
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 20/05/2013
By: Joharah Baker for MIFTAH
Date: 13/05/2013
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