.
Ambassador Oren makes a comparison of Israel now, to the days of Ben Gurion after the defeat of the Jewish people, sacrificed on the death piles in the annihilation camps of Hitler: May 8, 1945.
Portrays Israel today, May 8, 2010 as a victim in an ugly world of UN reports, Goldstone, Human Rights groups, accusations of war crimes, apartheid, challenges to arrest our leaders as they travel to Western countries. Oren calls it once again dehumanization of the Jewish people, wanting to live in peace and security on their God given bilblical land.
This speech is quite a change with the Israeli attitude one year ago when the Jewish people rejoyced after the successful onslaught of the Palestinian people in Gaza at the end of Olmert’s regime under a watchful eye, during the last days of Cheney, Rice and Bush. Quite a feat for Mitchell, Clinton and Obama to slowly turn the tables of power in the Middle-East and start proximity talks with Abbas and Netanyahu. A lot of water has passed through the Jordan river, hopefully no human introduced tragedy will occur that would derail this ultimate chance for peace and the two-state solution. Obama will not waiver in Israel’s security and partnership.
JERUSALEM (JTA) – Although Israeli and Palestinian leaders are pessimistic about the chances of a breakthrough in the U.S.-mediated proximity talks that begin this week, the Americans hope the process itself will generate a new peacemaking dynamic.
Whether or not the parties make headway, Israeli analysts anticipate a major U.S. peace push this fall.
Mitchell has made clear that he has no intention of merely shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah carrying messages, but that he intends to put forward American bridging proposals wherever they might be helpful.
The Americans see the proximity talks as a four-month preparatory corridor leading to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. The strategy seems to be to get the process moving quickly and with as much intensity as possible until next September, when the Israeli moratorium on building in West Bank settlements is due to expire.
Then, Israeli analysts say, President Obama will reconsider his options: If the talks are progressing well, Washington will try to persuade the Israelis to extend the building freeze and the Palestinians to agree to direct negotiations. But if the talks are foundering, Obama may consider putting an American peace plan on the table and calling an International Peace Conference to pressure the parties to move forward, according to a recent report by David Ignatius in the Washington Post, which quoted senior administration officials.
JERUSALEM (Haaretz) – As a senior U.S. official told the Wall Street Journal that Netanyahu had unequivocally rejected U.S. demands for a freeze in East Jerusalem, he conveniently provided the prime minister with a thick smokescreen to hide behind.
The alacrity with which the government confirmed such a ‘damaging’ report attests this – and we can now presume the crisis is over. As long as Jews aren’t building in Sheikh Jarrakh or Ramat Shlomo, America couldn’t care less was Israel says or doesn’t say over a Jerusalem construction freeze.
Washington understands that Netanyahu can’t afford to admit, not even obliquely, that he is treating Jerusalem like the West Bank settlements, where building has been banned until September. As far as the America’s is concerned, Netanyahu can run and tell his friends that what goes for Tel Aviv goes for Jerusalem – as long Obama officials don’t wake the next morning to newspaper reports that Israel has approved a new building program in the Holy City.
What Obama has demanded from Netanyahu is in essence a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ that Israel will not launch new building tenders in East Jerusalem as long as proximity talks with the Palestinians continue.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
