Sham Mideast Peace Talks: What It Really Means When They Say ‘Contiguous’
This week the Israeli-Palestinian talks moved from Sharm el-Sheikh in Sinai to Jerusalem, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East envoy George Mitchell accompanying and participating.
Mitchell, asked in a press conference about the U.S. position on Israel’s calling on the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, replied:
We have said many times that our vision is for a two-state solution that includes a Jewish, democratic state of Israel living side by side in peace and security with a viable, independent, sovereign, and contiguous state of Palestine. … But of course, this is one of many sensitive issues that the parties will need to resolve themselves.
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Apart from Mitchell’s refusal to take a stand on the issue — after having stated quite unequivocally that Israel should cave to the Palestinians’ demand to extend Israel’s settlement moratorium after September 26 — what stands out in the quote’s otherwise familiar verbiage is the word “contiguous.”
Having started to crop up under the Bush administration, “contiguous” is taken to mean that the Palestinian state would have to be devoid of any Israeli civilian or military presence in its West Bank part. Also, the Palestinian state must be connected to its Gaza part with some sort of corridor that would crisscross Israel.
Note, then, that Mitchell’s platitude about the parties resolving the issues themselves does not jibe with the force of the word “contiguous.” If he had said: “We believe Israel must maintain a security presence in the Jordan Valley and the West Bank mountain ridge, but this is an issue for the parties to work out themselves,” the first rather than the latter part of the statement — in this, unfortunately, wholly hypothetical case — would have resonated much more loudly for the Palestinian side.
Mitchell, in other words, took a position inimical to Israel and disguised it in false neutrality.
Regarding the West Bank, “contiguous” implies the forced removal of tens of thousands of Israelis living there (for the Israeli public’s opposition to this, see here and here). It also implies the absence of any Israeli military or intelligence capabilities in the territory, even though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly emphasizes Israel’s crucial West Bank-related security concerns.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has released a report on Hamas’s summer camps for children. The report notes that this summer in Gaza, about 100,000 children and adolescents — the same total as last year — attended the camps:
[Hamas views the camps as] an important means for indoctrinating them with its radical Islamist ideology of jihad. … In addition to indoctrination, Hamas operatives provided paramilitary training. Banners were hung on the walls with slogans extolling jihad and death for the sake of Allah. … Other prominent motifs this year [included] manifestations of hatred for Israel and the Jews.
As one Israeli told an American official who was promoting his peace initiative, when all is said and done, the official would return to Chevy Chase (a ritzy suburb of Washington), while Israel would have to live with the consequences. That is something few US officials even today realize. Yes, it was the US that in its foolishness insisted that “democracy” meant that Hamas must run in the 2006 elections. But it wasn’t Condi Rice that had to deal with the direct fallout of Hamas’ victory. Nor will it be Clinton or Mitchell that will have to live with missiles over Ben Gurion airport, or terrorism flowing out of a PA controlled eastern Jerusalem.
The British I believe say that a diplomat is an honest man sent abroad to lie for his country, well I tend to believe this is true, and thus both Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell are just lying about everything.
They know, you know, and I know, indeed every sentient human being knows that Palestinian rejectionism, intransigence, and their desire to destroy Israel and murder the Jewish People are the real obstacles to a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Palestinians are not now, nor have they ever, been negotiating in good faith with Israel. The Palestinians led by Abbas are no different than the Hamas in Gaza. The Palestinians use the negotiations as another front in their war to destroy Israel, just as they use their educational system, their media, and their international diplomatic efforts to delegitimize and villify Israel and the Jews. They tried using the force of arms a few years ago, murdered and maimed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, but got hammered back so badly that since then their armed war against Israel has been put on hold. Moreover, Israeli security forces are constantly at work arresting Palestinian terrorists and their leaders, and breaking up armed Palestinian terrorist cells. Even the Hamas missile attacks from Gaza, while serious and sometimes lethal, are carefully kept to a minimum by Hamas so as to avoid another Israeli reprisal incursion into Gaza.
But make no mistake, the Palestinians have not changed at all since Arafat. They remain dedicated heart and soul to the total destruction of the Jewish State of Israel and the genocide of the Jewish People and will never agree to a just compromise peace with us.
And that is why there will never be peace between Israel and “Paleostine”.
It’s funny, because you almost sound like you believe that that assertion should somehow be offensive to Palestine. Just think, a simple paraphrase with you in their shoes, such as, “They will never have peace with me, because they want to kill me.” How rude.
Well one can paraphrase and put mickey mouse in hitler’s shoes if one wants. Only, it will be a meaningless, and dishonest intellectual exercise because it is not the desire of the Jewish people of Israel to kill anybody—let alone Palenstinians. Whereas palestinians and at least 500 million other muslims are on record hundreds of thousands of times claiming to want ‘to exterminate jews and wipe the ‘zionist entity’ [Israel] off the face of earth.” Ergo, your Leftist nonsense is not only nonsense, but is also a malicious lie. Any questions?
Islam at its core is evil beyond belief. This whole Middle East set piece will end in some localized war, pseudo-peace, and then war again. So it has been for 1400 years. Why should it this side of a nuclear exchange be any different? And even if there is a nuclear exchange, as long as one copy of the Koran is left, peace will never have a real chance. Until the Muslims reform the Koran, there will be no peace.
You are literally an IGNORANT human being your logic is vile. Islam is the only hope we have or our humanity and people like you are what we need to get rid of to achieve an ever lasting peace.
So are you a Dhimmi or just your run of the mill Islamofascist?
Yes, we wouldn’t want people to live by their own personal beliefs
and code of conduct. Our only salvation will be when one religion,
has control over all of us. What a sad drury world that would be.
Of course Islam is our only salvation, and if you do not believe so
then the Muslims will kill you for your herasy. So exactly what part
of this did Crusader get wrong?
Satan assumes many forms–Helen of Troy, Old Scratch, and Mo–and I don’t mean Moses (AKA Moshe)
David is right on! 100%!
The palestinians are determined to destroy Israel, so there is nothing to discuss. Israel can never permit a palestinian state to exist, or she would be sanctioning the creation of an avowed enemy national state on territory already part of Israel.
Israel must reap what it has sowed.
White tiger, while what you state is manifestly correct, that implanting a PA terror state within Israel’s belly would be suicidal, we are not dealing with rational Israeli leaders.
Whereas, the notion of handing over to Al Qadea parts of the US, all in order to satiate their demands is a non starter for any normal US leader, we are dealing with delusional fantasists on the Israeli scene.
To wit, even if they wish away the historical and religious imperatives which underpins holding onto our heartland, NO sane leader would hand over the keys to the STRATEGIC areas of Judea and Samaria, AKA the West Bank, if they wish to survive here.
Therefore, either Israel’s leaders are delusional fantasists, or, they are simply suicidal.Either way they are leading us off a cliff.
Naturally, Obama, Clinton, Mitchel et al are more than willing to give them a helping hand to push them/us into the abyss.
This entire peace enterprise is a sham, a hoax,. A Kabuki play. The Arabs have absolutely no interest in a long term two state solution. Their ultimate goal is a Arab state with a Jewish minority, or better, an ethnically cleansed Muslim state.. The Arabs have had numerous opportunities since 1948 to reach an accord with the Israelis. Arafat, most recently, was offered almost everything he demanded, but turned it down. Ultimately he could not accept a Jewish state in the midst of the Muslim world. Nor can his heirs and successors. There is no peace process. Land for peace is a bullshit slogan ginned up to give the Eurotrash political cover. The Arab world would not tolerate one square foot of the Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East. There goal is no Israel. They’ve restated that over and over again. The ‘right of return’ is an attempt to accomplish what they have been unable to do militarily, i.e. the elimation of the Jewish state. I know, I know, many would prefer that Israel would just disappear. Along with the rest of the Jews. Well, the Germans gave that their best shot, but failed. Next time around it won’t be so easy. And the impotent anti-semitic Eurotrash better suck on that.
WELL EXPRESSED, CARLA!
But of course I do hope that a miracle will happen.
It is important to note that Mitchel and the Clintons are infamous for their anti Israeli positions. They are squarely in the camp of the Moslem world; Bill Clinton has received tens of millions of dollars from the arab oil states. No one seems to notice that the husband of the American Secretary of State is on the payroll of the moslems and they expect a fair deal to come forth from this farce in the diplomatic world of the mid east.
I am sure David’s facts are more or less accurate. What he leaves out is 1) the US position is only slightly worse than that of Bush’s on borders, contiguity etc. (Rice often spoke of contiguity, 2) the Israeli govt’s have come to regard the ‘settlers’ as a kind of internal enemy and the ‘occupation’ as an albatross. A firm ‘no’ to the US would suffice; instead, Bibi is apparently attempting to give away the Golan as a countermeasure.
Actually the article makes two critical references to the Bush administration, one re. “contiguity,” one re. pressuring Israel to let Hamas take part in the elections.
I admit, I only skimmed it. I’ve read enough of Hornik’s pieces to have the main talking points memorized. I missed contiguity = cutting Israel in half. Personally, I’d have to say it’s a bad idea…but that’s just me.
Netanyahu is not giving any land anywhere to the Arabs, he is simply playing the game that Obama and Clinton want him to play. Besides, the Arabs don’t even want the land, the Syrians couldn’t care less about the Golan Heights and the Palestinians really don’t want the Disputed Territories. If this conflict was about land, it would have been settled decades ago. They are totally unlike Anwar Sadat who was a moderate and a pragmatic leader who wanted the Sinai and knew he must make a real peace with Israel in order to get it.
The Syrians, Palestinians, and all the rest of the Arabs only want Israel destroyed and the Jewish People put to death. Land is their least concern.
Mitchell is the dullest, most hopeless heutral man since the castrati went out of fashion. To claim that his neutrality is a sham is just silly. It’s the essence of the man. What you really mean is that he’s not from the old school which said that Israel is always right. That’s the stance you miss. But those days are over, I’m afraid.
Mitchell is an anti Israeli old goat.Both he and James Jones were enrolled by Obama when the messiah noticed the persistent leftist bias of these 2 trolls under the former Bush administration.
The next 50 days will be crucial.If the 2 chambers turn hopefully red, Obama will either remain a one mandate leftist president ,retaining these 2 recycled geniuses ,or he will take a more centrist direction and will push the pair into history sewage.
I think you hit the nail on the head.
Didn’t Jacky Mason have a routine about contiguous? I live in Beverly Hills. Well, not Beverly hills exactly but contiguous. Nearby. Not far, anyway. Same zip code with one digit different. Practically next door. Barely a skip and a hop away…
Once again, there is no such thing as Palestinians, they are mostly from Jordan, and Egypt; Plus, there is no such thing as extremist Islam.
Hamas teaches the children to follow Mohammad. That is Islam in a nut shell, not extreme Islam.
ROPMA!
This is the standard: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010/09/16/khaled-abu-toameh-the-road-to-peace-goes-through-damascus-and-tehran/
Therefore, the batch from Washington are part of the problem, not part of the solution. Enter Plan “B” to deal with the mess.
To answer those who question my choice of standard, ponder this: The most rigourous standard stands up to the test of time, and does not pander to the appetites of those who place the highest priority on “what is in it for me”. For actions affect more than the person affecting change.
hamas has now created Hate Camps. 100,000 children to begin with, taught to hate jews, israel, the west and trained as hate mongers.
abbas, is the ghost mouthpiece, who pretends to be negotiating. mitchell is a dullard, ms. clinton is consumed with her continuing plastic surgery efforts, chagrined that her husband is no doubt exposing himself somewhere in the world, than she cares to think about israel.
after all, the only western democracy in the middle east isn’t worth much to the imam in the white house when one has no interest in either the west as a civilizaton or democracy as a form of nation-state. indeed, one has to wonder that he does not run around our iconic homefront in a burka and high heels.
it is monty python writ large and mr. netanyahu is doing his very best to remain optimistic in the face of this elaborate satire on peace talking.
hamas has now created Hate Camps. 100,000 children to begin with, taught to hate jews, israel, the west and trained as hate mongers.
abbas, is the ghost mouthpiece, who pretends to be negotiating. mitchell is a dullard, ms. clinton is consumed with her continuing plastic surgery efforts, chagrined that her husband is no doubt exposing himself somewhere in the world, than she cares to think about israel.
after all, the only western democracy in the middle east isn’t worth much to the imam in the white house when one has no interest in either the west as a civilizaton or democracy as a form of nation-state. indeed, one has to wonder that he does not run around our iconic homefront in a burka and high heels.
it is monty python writ large and mr. netanyahu is doing his very best to remain optimistic in the face of this elaborate satire on peace talking.
Judy, I think that Anonymous tried to steal your comment. The nerve of that person!
Mitchell is a hard leftist who has spent his whole career playing moderate.
I don’t see Mitchell as an ideologue. However, I do see him as an idiot. Obama makes good use of both ideologues and idiots. He doesn’t need to do much with his ideologue friends they help him steer. The idiots just follow and offer nothing.
carla said: Next time around it [the attempt to annihilate the Jews] won’t be so easy.
I really don’t see how Israel can survive a nuclear armed Iran. Which will be followed by a nuclear armed Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, etc. etc. But perhaps that’s another conversation.
read the bible psalm 83:4 then Ezekiel 36:5 Israel is the only nation with a title deed to their land promised by God they will part the land and Jerusalem but God says He will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling in Zechariah 12:2-14 and he will defend it
There is a way to make Gaza and the West Bank contiguous. That is to make a highway through Egypt, bridge over the Red Sea, and another highway through Jordan. Israel can not be a highway for terrorists. The Obama administration is delusional if it thinks anything else. The real question is how far does Obama think he can push Israel before it balks. Mostly I think that this latest effort by him is an attempt to regain the Jewish vote and Jewish money. Politically, he is in deep trouble. I think that he will fail on both counts.
Any sane, disinterested, observer watching this exercise in futility from a distance would have no choice but conclude that this couldn’t be serious. The “Palestinians” on one side get to openly call for the annihilation of Israel, they get to indoctrinate their children in hatred, they get to fire rockets into civilian areas and on and on…, then they get to make demands; the Israelis on the other hand, being the only democracy in the region, and the only place that Muslims have rights, must make gestures, concessions, and “hard decisions” and get nothing in return but promises proven time and again to be empty. Then they are expected to accept that their actions are morally equivalent, or inferior to those of the “Palestinians”. In reality has there ever been a more stark contrast between the two sides in negotiations? Has there ever been a bigger no-brainer? Has the world gone mad?
Wait until the Sinaloa Strip comes to America. American border towns shelled, mortared and rocketed every day by Mexi drug cartels,an inept President doing little or nothing and the UN trying to make peace. THEN America will get the picture. WHEN IT’S TOO LATE.
Can anyone please explain what happens next if somehow the unelected and powerless Mahmoud Abbas and BiBi Netanyahu somehow miraculous agree to set up another terrorist state? What about Hamas? What about Hezbollah? What about Lebanon? What about Syria? What about Iran? How long before the so-called Palestinians start launching rockets into Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport? How is this even for peace?
Many liberal Jews in the USA who would like to see Israel go away. They feel put upon to have to explain why Israel needs to defend themselves against the law abiding terrorists. love the ruling class
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t noticed anyone discussing the fact that Egypt is Israel’s partner in the blockade of Gaza. I guess Egypt’s practice of pumping poisonous gas into the illegal cross-border smuggling tunnels from Gaza isn’t quite as visually dramatic as the boarding of ships attempting to break the naval blockade. And when North Korea torpedoed and sank a South Korean warship killing 46 sailors, the international community sat quietly for two months while a UN intelligence and military panel studied the evidence. When they finally concluded that, yes, the North Koreans did deliberately sink a South Korean ship in international waters, the result was a collective yawn. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton probably issued the strongest condemnation of all the Western powers. She deemed North Korea’s behavior, “unacceptable.”
The world seems to be uniting behind two goals: 1) Lynch Israel for its blockade of the terrorist Hamas government in Gaza and 2) provide ‘humanitarian aid’ to a group of people who are, by their own admission, not starving. I notice, however, that no one is condemning Turkey for bombing 50 Kurdish locations inside Iraq last week. No one is lynching Russia for its suppression of the Chechens in their quest for a homeland. No one is rushing to intervene in the Sudanese genocide in Darfur. Why? Because, obviously, the Jews deserve all the outrage and there’s none left for anyone else. Just ask Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
This week, the Iranian President declared that Israel is guilty of “unmatched crimes… that have been unprecedented in the history of mankind, the last of which has been invading the Gaza Peace Flotilla.” Hyperbole, thy name is Mahmoud! Typically, he threatened that “attacking the aid convoy [brings] the Zionist regime one step closer to its death.”
We must also recall God’s words, in the context of His bringing Israel back into their land – during this last generation:
“You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God” (Ezekiel 36:28)
And why does He do this? The answer is found in Ezekiel 36:22-23:
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations…Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.”
These passages serve as yet another reminder that God is completely in control – everything will come about because it is part of His overall plan.
Our job is to watch it unfold and to use fulfillment of biblical prophecy as a witnessing tool. We have been given this knowledge of God’s prophecy for a reason – and that reason is to be spiritually prepared for Jesus’ coming, and to witness on behalf of Christ Jesus.
It’s pretty simple really.
The signs of His return are all around us – that is an undeniable fact. The nation’s return to their land – Israel – is one of our most important signs. God’s plan is in the process of reaching complete fulfillment. We are greatly blessed to be living in a biblical age. Have a blessed day
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I liked the Mitchell’s reply bout the U.S. position, i share it.