Onderhandelingen over kernproblemen tussen Israël en Palestijnen beginnen vandaag

Eindelijk zal er gepraat gaan worden over de kernproblemen van het conflict. Goed nieuws, maar de situatie op de grond kan makkelijk roet in het eten gooien. 

 

In his speech Sunday, Abbas said, "We told President Bush that we can't move ahead in negotiations while settlement activities are going on. We can't have negotiations while they are building houses all over."

 

 

Waarop ik als ik Israël was zou zeggen: en wij kunnen niet onderhandelen terwijl de anti-Israël en antisemitische hetze, ook in door de Palestijnse Autoriteit gecontroleerde media, doorgaat, zolang jullie kinderen leren dat de gewapende strijd voor de bevrijding van Palestina een nobele zaak is en plegers van zelfmoordaanslagen eren als helden, en zolang er raketten op onze burgers worden afgevuurd en aanslagen beraamd, ook door aan Fatah geliëerde groepen.

 

Over die raketten zei Abbas het volgende:

 

Abbas criticized the Hamas-led Gaza regime for allowing rockets to be fired into Israel but said the rocket fire hurts the Palestinians more than they [hurt] Israelis, who keep demanding that Abbas take action to stop it.

 

 

Hij bedoelt: 'Ik betreur de pogingen onschuldige burgers van Israël te doden omdat het onze zaak schaadt, niet omdat het doden van burgers verkeerd is'. Een zeer moreel standpunt.

 

Zijn respect voor de VS uitte hij als volgt:

He said if Hamas relinquishes power in Gaza, he will begin talks with the Islamic militants, "even if the Americans reject that."

 

 

Vrij vertaald: 'laat Amerika maar lullen, we hebben ons geld al binnen, en bovendien, het zal ons toch wel blijven steunen want ze hebben geen keuze.'

 

Ratna

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Abbas: Negotiations on core issues to begin Monday

Associated Press , THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 13, 2008
www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1199964913142&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

At their next meeting, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will begin tackling the core issues that need to be resolved for a peace treaty, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Sunday.

During a speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said that teams headed by ex-Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qurei and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will begin discussion of six issues: Jerusalem, Israeli West Bank settlements, Palestinian refugees, borders, security and water resources.

"If we reach an agreement on all these issues, then we can say that we have reached a final agreement," Abbas said, adding that a peace treaty must resolve disputes over all the issues.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev confirmed that the negotiating teams would meet Monday, and that they received a mandate to begin discussions on the core issues.

Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to restart peace talks, frozen during seven years of violence, at a US-sponsored Mideast peace conference in November. Last week, before the arrival of US President George W. Bush, they told their negotiating teams to get down to discussing the core issues. Previous negotiations have broken down over these topics, as so far neither side has been willing to compromise enough to satisfy the other.

Olmert and Abbas pledged to make efforts to reach a peace accord this year, before Bush leaves office.

In his speech Sunday, Abbas said, "We told President Bush that we can't move ahead in negotiations while settlement activities are going on. We can't have negotiations while they are building houses all over."

Abbas criticized the Hamas-led Gaza regime for allowing rockets to be fired into Israel but said the rocket fire hurts the Palestinians more than they Israelis, who keep demanding that Abbas take action to stop it.

He said if Hamas relinquishes power in Gaza, he will begin talks with the Islamic militants, "even if the Americans reject that."