Stephen Farrell

Israel prepared to leave West Bank
Captured soldier must be released

Twenty-four hours after Palestinian militants began a ceasefire in Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister sought to maintain the momentum yesterday by offering peace talks leading to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Ehud Olmert said that Israel would release prisoners, withdraw from West Bank Jewish settlements and ease checkpoints if Palestinians abandoned violence.

But although he held out the prospect of “real, open, genuine and serious dialogue” with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, Mr Olmert’s offer had three conditions. They were for Palestinians to replace Hamas with a new government committed to recognising Israel, implement President Bush’s long-delayed “road map” and release the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit.

“When Gilad Schalit is released and returned to his family, safe and sound, the Government of Israel will be willing to release numerous Palestinian prisoners — including ones who were sentenced to lengthy prison terms,” Mr Olmert said.

The Prime Minister infuriated right-wing critics by offering to reduce roadblocks, evacuate “many territories” in the West Bank and look forward to an “independent and viable Palestinian state . . . with full sovereignty and defined borders”. The key to a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian dialogue is talks in Cairo between Hamas’s supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal , and Egyptian mediators. They are trying to broker a deal that would secure the release of Corporal Schalit in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, and lead to the formation of a Palestinian national unity government.

In Israel, rightwingers criticised Mr Olmert’s overtures. Yuval Steinitz, a Likud MP, said: “The Prime Minister is offering hills and mountains . . . to a Hamas Government and parliament which breached all agreements and ceasefires.”

However, Mohammed Eid Shubair, the academic widely tipped to take over from the Hamas leader Ismail Haniya as prime minister, confirmed that a government led by him would allow President Abbas to negotiate with Israel.

Sidestepping the crucial issue of whether such a national unity administration would recognise the Jewish state — a precondition to ending the international embargo — Dr Shubair told The Times: “I think the file of politics is in the hands of Mr Abbas. As I understand it from him, all these issues are going to be dealt with by the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the Government should take care of internal affairs.”

Palestinians in Gaza were sceptical about Mr Olmert’s remarks, believing them timed to satisfy President Bush before his arrival in the Middle East tomorrow to meet Nouri alMaliki, Iraq’s Prime Minister.

Editorial

It was not as detailed or as generous as most Palestinians would have preferred, but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's rhetorical overture on Monday was certainly more than many observers had been expecting. Merely by ending his refusal to openly consider the massive prisoner swap that has been discussed behind closed doors for months, for instance, Olmert gave the impression of having adopted a more realistic view of his government's relationship with the people on whose land his country was established. Although the real test of Israeli intentions will come when the two sides sit down to negotiate, every effort should be made to avoid and/or prevent actions that might delay that test.

The Palestinian Authority has undertaken to do its part by using its security forces to keep militants from firing rockets into the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip. This is a vital step because regardless of who is to blame for the current state of affairs, Palestinian leaders need very much to regain the confidence and trust of both Israel and the international community. The same is true for the Jewish state, which could take a big step in this direction by, for example, offering to extend the Gaza cease-fire to the West Bank as well, and/or turning over Palestinian customs levies it has been withholding. If the current stage is to become more than a brief lull between rounds of bloodshed, it will need sufficient momentum to get through the inevitable rough patches. The principals - Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - can say all the right things, but words will count for nothing unless each helps the other convince his own people that this time will be different.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

This is particularly important for Abbas because he and his Fatah movement have recently been locked in a power struggle with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya's Hamas grouping. Only by doing all they can to enforce the Gaza cease-fire can Abbas and Haniyya demonstrate to all and sundry that their dispute is in actuality a healthy, democratic one - and that Palestine speaks with one voice when it comes to its international commitments. To do this, they also need to address stubborn domestic problems like corruption and unemployment so that the Palestinian street sees both sides of the political divide working toward common, national goals.

Surveys show consistently that solid majorities of both Israelis and Palestinians want peace. Their visions of an agreement are very different, but that is less important than their shared desire to stop inflicting pain on one another. It is up to their leaders to start honoring the wishes of their respective peoples by being as resolute in a hopeful search for compromise as the warmongers have been in the disastrous and futile hunt for a military solution.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...190&categ_id=17

Israeli-Palestinian Cease-Fire Holding on Second Day, Army Says
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...c14k&refer=home
By David Rosenberg

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- An Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire in the Gaza Strip was holding for a second day, with Israel's army reporting that no rockets fell on Israeli territory and that its troops remained outside of Gaza.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in a firefight near the town of Jenin and arrested 15 others throughout the region, the army said on its Web site. Gaza was quiet today, an army spokeswoman, who commented on condition of anonymity, said in a telephone interview.

The cease-fire went into effect a 6 a.m. local time yesterday after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas reached an agreement. Three rockets hit Israel in the hours after the truce went into effect, casting doubts on whether all Palestinian militants would accept it.

About 100 of the unguided rockets have hit southern Israel since the beginning of the month, killing two civilians. In an offensive that started Nov. 1, more than 100 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier were killed. Israel, which evacuated Gaza more than a year ago, is seeking an end to the rocket attacks and the return of a soldier abducted by Palestinians in June.

``The cease-fire signifies fatigue on both sides,'' Meir Litvak, a senior research fellow at Tel Aviv University's Dayan Center, said in a telephone interview. ``Hamas and the other movements are aware that Palestinian public opinion wants the conflict to be toned down. They are probably also afraid of a major Israeli attack on Gaza.''

Quartet

Israel may be interested in reducing violence out of concern that the European Union or other members of the Quartet for Middle East peace may seek to replace the U.S.-backed ``road map'' with a plan less favorable to Israel. In addition to the EU and U.S., the Quartet includes the United Nations and Russia.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero proposed on Nov. 17 an exchange of prisoners by each side, a Palestinian government of national unity and talks between Olmert and Abbas. EU leaders will be asked to back the plan at a meeting in December.

Palestinian militants are now seeking to extend the cease- fire to the West Bank, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported, without saying where it got the information. Meanwhile, the al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is loosely affiliated with Abbas's Fatah movement, said yesterday it was joining the cease-fire in Gaza, the newspaper reported.

Olmert said yesterday that Israel will show ``restraint and patience'' and give the Palestinians a chance to enforce the agreement ``definitely over the next few days.'' The prime minister said in comments posted on his office's Web site he that hoped the cease-fire would lead to a resumption of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

`Palestinian Consensus'

Hazem Abu Shanab, a political scientist at al-Azhar University in Gaza, said yesterday that he believed the authority would enforce the cease-fire.

``There is a national Palestinian consensus in such special circumstances to accept a mutual cease-fire with Israel,'' he said in a telephone interview.

The truce may also help the Palestinians to form a national unity government between Hamas and Fatah, Abu Shanab said.

The U.S. and EU froze direct financial assistance to the authority in March after Hamas won Palestinian legislative elections. Hamas, which has sent its members on suicide bombing missions against Israel, is classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and EU.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Rosenberg in Jerusalem at drosenberg1@bloomberg.net .

Our World: An orphan's appeal
Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 27, 2006
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull
Yaacov Yaacobov was hard at work at the poultry processing plant in Sderot on Tuesday morning when Palestinian terrorists murdered him with a Kassam rocket.

Wednesday an Arutz 7 reporter spoke to his young son, Hanan. The reporter asked the boy whether he wanted to move away from his hometown to get away from the rocket bombardment. Hanan said no, he wanted to stay.

When the reporter asked him why he wanted to stay, the orphaned child with moonbeam eyes replied, "I love Sderot very much, and I won't leave it because I love the State of Israel. If I leave Sderot, if all of Sderot were evacuated, then the country would fall apart. The Palestinians will see that they are succeeding in Sderot, and then they'll shoot Kassams at Ashkelon and Ashdod too, and do the same in the whole country until nothing is left."

But three days after Hanan explained why Sderot must stand, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert decided to let it fall. Saturday night Olmert ordered the IDF to end the limited counterterror operations in Gaza he had allowed it to conduct in recent weeks.

Sunday morning Olmert explained, "Last night the chairman of the Palestinian Authority [Mahmoud Abbas] called to tell me of the decision by all the Palestinian [terrorist] factions to cease their fire, cease all their violent actions, including smuggling [of weapons] in tunnels [from Egypt to Gaza], [end] the deployment of suicide bombers and the firing of Kassam [rockets]. I was happy and congratulated the head of the Authority, and the two of us will do all we can for the cease-fire to get started this morning."

By 6 a.m. all IDF units had abandoned their battle stations in Gaza, as ordered. Yet, when Olmert made this statement Sunday morning, the cease-fire had already fallen apart. By 10 o'clock the Palestinians had launched 11 rockets. And by the end of the day Abbas's Fatah terror group's Aksa Brigades had already disavowed the cease-fire, claiming it was unfair because the IDF is still "allowed" to operate in Judea and Samaria.

OTHER FATAH groups didn't even wait that long. Saturday night the Fatah's Army of Islam and Popular Resistance Committees, which co-kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas in June, stated outright that they would ignore the cease-fire.

Sunday night Hamas was also threatening to resume its attacks. Hamas spokesmen argued that Abbas's intention to deploy 13,000 Palestinian forces to the border with Israel in northern Gaza was unacceptable. If Abbas deploys those forces, or if his forces arrest any of our terrorists, Hamas warned, the cease-fire will be history.

But then, even before it was announced or disavowed, the cease-fire was a lie. While Olmert told the Israeli public that as part of the cease-fire the Palestinians would stop smuggling weapons into Gaza from the Sinai and cease all weapons production in Gaza, every Palestinian official and unofficial body denied his claim. That is, the Palestinians view the cease-fire just as they viewed all previous cease-fires - as a respite to be used to replenish their arsenals and retrain their forces. Hamas's commander Khaled Mashaal made this point explicitly when he said that his group plans to go to war with Israel in six to eight months.

Olmert and his cabinet ministers spent Sunday extolling the virtues of PA Chairman Abbas and waxing poetic about the opportunity that the cease-fire affords us to strengthen him and pave the way for an eventual peace deal with him. So great is the government's trust in Abbas that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio that if Israel receives information that the Palestinians are about to shoot off missiles at our cities, before allowing the IDF to defend us, the government will first ask Abbas to have his guys take a crack at it.

THE AMERICANS, for their part, are not merely cheering Abbas, they are funding, arming and training his "Presidential Guard" and pressuring Israel to allow an additional 1,500 PLO terrorists into Gaza from Jordan to join Abbas's personal army. As US Army Lt. General Keith Dayton, who oversees the US training of Abbas's forces explained to Yediot Aharonot on Friday, Abbas's private army is supposed to be a counterweight to Hamas to ensure "that the moderate forces will not be erased."

To Israelis concerned about the prospect of being erased, and for anyone concerned with fighting the global jihad, statements like Olmert's, Livni's and Dayton's are infuriating because they are based on two glaringly obvious factual errors. First, Abbas's forces are in no danger of being erased. Second, they are not and never have been moderate.

As The Jerusalem Post's Khaled Abu Toameh reported on Friday, Abbas is the commander-in-chief of all the PA's security forces. While it is true that in recent months Hamas has been fielding an army which now numbers some 6,000 jihadists in Gaza, Abbas has some 45,000 military forces in Gaza under his direct control. As the commander of all Fatah terror forces, Abbas also has several thousand additional terrorists under his thumb. Both the official Palestinian security forces and Fatah terror cells are armed to the teeth and are the chief beneficiaries of the weapons smuggling from the Sinai.

And yet, aside from shooting rockets, missiles, bullets and bombs at Israelis; co-kidnapping IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit with Hamas and holding him hostage; kidnapping foreign correspondents and forcibly converting them to Islam; murdering and torturing Palestinians suspected of assisting Israel in fighting Palestinians terror (as Abbas is pledged to do), and running protection rackets that terrorize Palestinian businessmen, workers and professionals alike, Abbas doesn't use his forces for much of anything.

The last thing Israel or the US should be worrying about is Abbas's forces' defeat at the hands of Hamas.

AT THE same time, the last thing they can expect is for these forces to act as moderates. Over the past six years, Fatah terrorists, both in and out of the official Palestinian security services, have committed more terror attacks than Hamas. While it is true that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are commanded by Iran, it is also true that Fatah terror units are deeply penetrated by Iran and Hizbullah.

And yet, rather than accept the fact that Abbas is an enemy, not an ally, and that his "security forces" and Fatah "party" are actively involved in terror and racketeering, the US and Israel pretend that they are credible interlocutors. The US trains them and Israel allows them to be trained and pretends there is a chance that they will protect us from themselves.

In its press release regarding the cease-fire, the Foreign Ministry stated: "Israel is interested in maintaining a cease-fire as a means to end the violence and to enable progress in the political negotiations. In doing so Israel is knowingly undertaking the risk that the terrorist organizations will exploit the cease-fire to rearm and to rebuild their infrastructure."

When asked on Israel Radio about the prospect of the Palestinians using the cease-fire to rebuild their arsenals, Defense Minister Amir Peretz's strategic adviser Maj. Gen. (ret.) Amos Gilad answered rhetorically, "And we were stopping the smuggling until now?"

He went on to assure his listeners that Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, who has to date facilitated massive arms shipments to cross Egypt into Sinai, will now make sure that no weapons get through.

IT IS POSSIBLE that Olmert is playing a game of chance with the lives of Hanan Yaacobov and his fellow residents of the south in the hope of winning points with US President George W. Bush when he visits in Jordan this week. Jordan's King Abdullah set the agenda when he shamelessly told ABC News on Sunday that peace in Iraq is dependent on Israel's willingness to capitulate to Palestinian terrorists because the whole Arab world is deeply emotional in its support of Palestinian terrorists against Israel.

Hanan Yaacobov, who no longer has his father to guide him through childhood, has some very mature guidance for Israel's leaders, who may think it preferable to be applauded by foreigners than to defend their countrymen from our enemies.

"I, Yaacobov's son, am turning to you. Resign your positions! Resign. The defense minister and Olmert should admit that they can't do this, and vacate their places in the government to Bibi Netanyahu and to [Avigdor] Lieberman. If they can [defend us] I want to see their answer. If not, they should vacate their seats, quickly."

A serious offer? Give me a break. Same old same old. Leave all the occupied territories, release the thousands of Palestinians held with only the orders of a military court, and that would be a serious start. In short, Olmert could start complying with international law, but we all know Israel is above all that. If Olmert can ask the Palestinians to dump Hamas, would he dump Avigdor Lieberman?

Arab League welcomes Palestinian-Israeli ceasefire

http://english.people.com.cn/200611/27/eng...127_325357.html
The Arab League (AL) on Sunday welcomed a ceasefire between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel which was put into effect earlier in the day.

The AL praised in a statement Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for his strenuous efforts to reach the truce.

In the statement, the AL also asked the UN Security Council and the international Quartet, which groups the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States, to dispatch an international observer force to the Palestinian territories to monitor the implementation of the ceasefire.

The PNA and Israel agreed to a ceasefire after Abbas phoned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday to inform the latter that the Palestinian militant groups have agreed to halt rocket fire against Israel.

However, hours after the ceasefire took effect at 6:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Sunday, two Palestinian militant groups violated the truce by firing several rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot.

Olmert called for "patience and restraint" in the face of Palestinian breaching of the ceasefire while Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya reiterated commitment by all the major groups in the Gaza Strip to the ceasefire.

"Contacts were made with the political leaders of the factions and there is a reaffirmation of the commitment of what has been agreed to," Haneya said.

Source: Xinhua

Public reaction to cease fire between Israel and Palestine

Source: CCTV.com | 11-27-2006 13:46
http://www.cctv.com/english/20061127/102296.shtml
The ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinians is being met with mixed reaction.

Palestinians took to the streets of northern Gaza on Sunday, hours after the truce took effect and Israeli forces pulled out. Examining the tracks left behind by Israeli tanks, Palestinians hailed the cease fire agreement But they also say they wish for Israel's sincere commitment.

Resident said,"The agreement is a positive move, and we are behind any solution that leads to the Palestinian rights. We are not for violence. We are against violence. Although Israelis are he ones who start the violence. And they destroy our land, trees, cattle, our people and houses."

Resident said,"Our tool for commitment within the Palestinian people is unity. We hope to unite with all sides. We will commit to the agreement, but where is Israeli's commitment? What is going to make Israel commit to this agreement? We've had millions of agreements with the Israeli side and they have never committed to any. Since his presidency, what commitment has Mahmoud Abbas received from the Israeli side?"

On the streets of Jerusalem however, Israelis were skeptical that the cease fire would hold.

Resident of Jerusalem said,"It's going to take two sides who really, really want to engage in the cease fire. But, from bitter previous experience, I doubt that it's going to last. I am very sad about that."

The cease fire could pave the way for a long-awaited summit between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on various ways to maintain peace.



E

Fragile cease-fire in Gaza rekindles local hopes for peace

By LEN MANIACE
THE JOURNAL NEWS

http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dl...336/1018/NEWS02
(Original publication: November 27, 2006)

WHITE PLAINS - As if they were holding a newborn baby, some people around the Lower Hudson Valley reacted with tentativeness and hope yesterday to word of a cease-fire in Gaza between the Israelis and Palestinian factions.

"It is going to be an uphill struggle and won't happen overnight," said Darryl Harris, referring to the cease-fire that began at 6 a.m. in Gaza yesterday, as he left a martial- arts studio at the West-chester Pavilion. "It's going to require compromise on both sides."

The cease-fire, which got off to a shaky start but seemed to be holding, called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and an end to rocket attacks into Israel by Palestinians. Some see the cease-fire as a first step toward the resumption of peace talks.

"I hope it will make a difference. It is high time somebody had to step up," said Saumya Dwivedi, a 29-year-old food scientist from White Plains, as she left the Barnes & Noble bookstore.

The cease-fire came about, according to news reports, after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas contacted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and told him that he had reached an agreement for a cease-fire with various Palestinian factions.

But in a part of the world that has seen many truces and peace agreements unravel, those interviewed were generally conscious of the long odds against success.

"If (you) look at the politics, a lot of the groups there don't want to compromise," said Sunil Perala, an information technology consultant who lives in White Plains.

Gaza, long occupied by Israel, saw hope for peace grow after September 2005, when Israel withdrew its troops and settlers. Israel reoccupied parts of Gaza in June, however, after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier.

Longtime peace activist Connie Hogarth said the dispute between the Palestinians and the Israelis is a major cause of conflict throughout the Middle East, including Iraq. A resolution of the continuing crisis between the Palestinians and Israelis would be beneficial to residents of the region.

"Any stay in the violence, anything that would make the lives of the people in Gaza better, clearly has got to be a good thing," said Hogarth, a co-founder and former director of the Westchester People's Action Coalition Foundation in White Plains.

An economic embargo by Western nations, enacted after the militant Hamas party won control of the Palestinian Parliament earlier this year, has worsened already poor economic conditions in Gaza.

"I think the major moves have to come from the Israelis. They have been the occupiers," said Hogarth, who lives in Beacon, N.Y.

Associated Press contributed to this report.
Reach Len Maniace at lmaniace@lohud.com or 914-694-5163.

APN WELCOMES ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CEASEFIRE - CALLS FOR RENEWED TALKS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 26, 2006
CONTACT: Ori Nir - (202) 728-1893
http://www.peacenow.org/pr.asp?rid=&cid=3197
Washington, D.C.—Americans for Peace Now (APN) today welcomed the Gaza ceasefire agreement reached between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. APN calls on all parties to adhere to the agreement. It also urges Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas to expand the ceasefire to the West Bank and take advantage of this opportunity to restart political negotiations.

APN, a Jewish, Zionist organization dedicated to enhancing Israel's security through peace and to supporting the Israeli Peace Now movement, has in recent months been warning that continued violence in Gaza could spill over and spread to the West Bank, with possible destabilizing impacts elsewhere in the region. A ceasefire could both save lives and supply the calm needed for a series of vital political and economic processes to unfold. Such processes could lead to the resumption of peace negotiations, which most Israelis and Palestinians support, between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

"The agreement is very important. More important, however, is full adherence to it. We view with concern the reports that two Palestinian factions – albeit small – have rejected the ceasefire agreement. Most important, however, is follow-up by both sides and by the international community – led by the United States – to make sure that the cessation of violence is more than an end in itself," said Debra DeLee, President and CEO of Americans for Peace Now. "In the absence of progress towards a political arrangement, it is only a matter of time until violence resumes."

APN is urging all the parties involved, DeLee added, to make the ceasefire a means to achieve the following objectives:

* Longer-term security arrangements in and around Gaza, including a cessation of arms smuggling into the Strip.
* Extending the ceasefire and security arrangements to the West Bank.
* The release of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit.
* Free flow of humanitarian relief into the Gaza Strip and the full functioning of border-crossings, in accordance with security agreements, to allow movement of people and goods.
* An agreement among the Palestinian factions that would produce a government with which Israel and the international community could engage.
* A resumption of political negotiations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.

"This ceasefire agreement is a rare opportunity to break through the misery and despair that has haunted Israelis and Palestinians for the past year and to introduce some much-needed hope. We urge Israelis and Palestinians – as well as our own government – not to miss this opportunity," DeLee said.

Terrorists Reject Ceasefire; Olmert Honors It Despite Attacks
09:07 Nov 27, '06 / 6 Kislev 5767
by Hana Levi Julian
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=116343

One of the 3 terrorist groups which kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit in June refuses to recognize a “ceasefire” agreement between the PA and Israel, joining two others that have already backed out.


The Army of Islam, a small but active terror organization, released a statement Sunday night which made it clear that not all terror groups had agreed to the ceasefire, contrary to statements made by the PA leadership Saturday night.

“The Army of Islam does not recognize the truce,” said the statement, according to the AFP news agency. “We warn whoever prevents us from fighting the Jews.”

A ceasefire agreement allegedly coordinated Saturday between all terrorist organizations in the Palestinian Authority territories went into effect on Sunday morning at 6:00 a.m.

Within hours, the Islamic Jihad and Fatah-linked Abu Rish Brigades groups both said they would continue firing rockets against Israel’s southern communities.

Three Kassam rockets slammed into the city of Sderot and surrounds within two hours after the ceasefire allegedly went into effect. Another rocket landed in the Eshkol region of the Negev.

A fifth rocket landed at mid-morning, also hitting Sderot. No one was hurt in the attack and no damage was reported.

The besieged residents demonstrated in the streets in response to the broken hope of a peaceful day. Protestors burned tires in the street, shouting angrily against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the government.

Olmert said later in the day that the IDF would not respond to the attacks at that point. In a statement released to the media Sunday afternoon, the Prime Minister said the ceasefire was only a “first step” in a comprehensive diplomatic process.

He added that he was aware there would be ceasefire violations and said Israelis must have “patience” with the process of renewing diplomatic talks with the terrorists.

For its part, Hamas-led PA officials announced that some 13,000 PA troops have been deployed in northern Gaza along the border with Israel as a deterrent force to prevent Kassam rockets being fired at Israel from the area of Beit Hanoun, a favorite terrorist launching site.

The PA forces are spread out along the entire northern Gaza border, said officials, in an effort to ensure that the rocket attacks are halted completely.

Damascus-based Hamas politburo Chief Khaled Meshaal, widely believed to be the unspoken leader of Hamas, gave a six-month deadline for establishment of an official PA state, as part of the ceasefire deal. Meshaal has been largely responsible for the repeatedly scuttled prisoner swap deals to free Shalit.

Just in case you are foolish enough to trust anything Olmert says, consider the actions of the Government he heads first...

Then Consider how it is all done in our name.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/786549.html
No one is guilty in Israel
By Gideon Levy






BTW, Olmert's offer is based on Sharon's letter to GW Bush, which basically sets the illegal separation wall as the new border.

One might get the impression you opposed to anything positive happening in the mideast.

There is nothing positive about what is going on, only the usual lies and spin. Olmert is doing this for show, he know how bad things look for Israel in the wake of the destruction of Southern Lebanon and the attacks in Gaza.

Dems Rebut Carter on Israeli 'Apartheid'

Michael F. Brown
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061204/brown

Nothing positive about what's going on? :hanukkah: Peace

No there is not.

• We are funding and supporting murder and ethnic cleansing.
• We supply cluster bombs that maim and kill people who would have not any other reason to hate us.
• We supply the bombs that were used to destroy the power plants that supply power to one of the most densely populated places on earth.
• We supply the moral and Military cover that allows Israel to place "settlers" right near those people with their own private roads and new houses because they have a "right to return" to someplace they never came from.
• We ignore the 200 plus nuclear weapons Israel has.
• We say nothing when Palestinians are slaughtered.
• We complain about Hamas, but say nothing when racist promoters of ethinic cleansing like Avigdor Lieberman join the power elite in Israel.

And what do we gain from this? More enemies, nothing else.

No peace in that.