Now it's up to the Palestinians

[Caleb]

Now it's up to the Palestinians
Los Angeles Times
Yossi Klein Halevi
August 17, 2005

EVEN AS ISRAEL'S anguished self-confrontation unfolds in Gaza with the army's dismantling of two dozen thriving towns and agricultural villages, Palestinian leaders are demanding more. This withdrawal is only the beginning, they promise their celebrating followers. Today Gaza, tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Yet whether Israel ultimately cedes all that the Palestinians say they want will depend on the Palestinians themselves. A wary Israeli public needs to be convinced that the Palestinians want to build their own state more than they want to destroy the Jewish state. Gaza is the test case for that open question.

In the coming months, a Palestine taking sovereign control of territory must begin confronting the terrorist regime that has grown in Gaza. It must wrest foreign aid away from militias and private bank accounts and put it into schools and hospitals. Its leaders must dismantle the refugee camps that have been a permanent condition of Gaza life and resettle their residents in decent housing. Finally, it must temper the culture of hatred against the Jewish people that has become routine in Gaza's schools, mosques and media.

If the Palestinian leadership initiates that difficult process of physical and spiritual renewal, then the Israeli majority — which craves peace far more than biblical borders — will support negotiations over extending Palestinian sovereignty. And even if, as the Palestinians suspect, Ariel Sharon intends Gaza to be his first and last withdrawal, the Israeli majority will insist on substantive talks. No Israeli leader can survive politically if the electorate perceives him to be blocking a chance for peace.

Full article

[H5N1]

1. Keep on dreaming...

With Ariel Sharon, by contrast, what you see is what you get. He has always been in the destruction business, not the construction business. As minister of defence in 1982, Sharon preferred to destroy the settlement town of Yamit in Sinai rather than hand it to Egypt as a reward for signing a peace treaty with Israel. George Bush once described his friend Sharon as "a man of peace". In truth, Sharon is a brutal thug and land-grabber.

Sharon is also the unilateralist par excellence. The road map issued by the quartet (US, UN, EU and Russia) in the aftermath of the Iraq war envisaged three stages leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2005. Sharon wrecked the road map, notably by continuing to expand Jewish settlements on the West Bank and building an illegal wall that cuts deep into Palestinian territory."


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1511702,...

This is all smoke and mirrors. Sharon is giving nothing and taking everything he can steal.

[Caleb]

2. Didn't you post this already?

And what does it have to do with the original article?

[Coastie for Truth]

3. Since this is an allegedly Progressive, Left Wing Web Site

Might I be so presumptuous as to ask--

1. What was gained by divesting Citi (with investments in developing an entrepreneurial infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank) while retaining JP Morgan-Chase which has been less helpful.

2. Have you read and understood H. John Heinz Professor Richard Florida's two books "Rise of the Creative Class..." and "Flight of the Creative Class..."
Before asking me where I am going with that question, consider
1) Florida was a key Kerry economic development adviser.
2) Florida is an H.John Heinz Foundation adviser (as in Teresa Heinz Kerry)
3) Have you read the books.

[caitlyn]

4. Should I post the same reply I gave the last time you posted...

this nonsense?