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Proximity talks a waste of time
by Eitan Haber
Israel Opinion - Ynet -
05.05.10,
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3885279,00.html
At the ultimate end of everything, in a month, a year, or 10 years from now, everyone knows what the final result will be. Netanyahu and Barak, Obama and Sarkozy, Abbas and Haniyeh all know the ultimate outcome of the “proximity talks”, and the direct talks, and the secret and open negotiation sessions.
Everyone knows that at the end of the day, Israel will go back to the 1967 borders, with some “small adjustments,” and possibly (let’s hope so) with the “large settlement blocs” still in our hands.
Different Goals
Proximity talks doomed to fail / Giora Eiland
US, Israel and Palestinians have wholly different aims for peace process
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The Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem will be handed over to the Palestinians and hundreds of thousands (and possibly millions) of refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and other countries will continue to rot in their refugee camps.
This, at the end of the day, is the solution brought to the table by both Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert when they were prime ministers – and this, apparently, is what will end up happening (this doesn’t mean the undersigned wants this to happen. It only means that this is what we can expect to happen.)
Prime Minister Netanyahu may not be the one who concocted the solution currently on the table, yet the concoction will apparently be served to the table during his watch.
Whole world against us
The “proximity talks” that were supposed to get underway Wednesday are almost completely worthless: They constitute a waste of money and mostly a waste of time. The position papers prepared by Uzi Arad and his colleagues, the dedicated aides from the national Security Agency, will at most serve as a topic for future political science research at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.
The story here is the waste of time. Forty three years after the Six-Day War ended, we are still stuck with the Palestinians; this is mostly their fault. Yet for the time being, they are not in a hurry: The world, which has become fed up with the conflict, is doing the work for them.
The Arab world, our great ally America, and the European Union are rising up against us; their chokehold is not felt here yet, but their fingers are getting closer to our necks. Again, we are back to the slogan we love so much: The whole world is against us.
What is apparently required by the minister of history at this time is a decision. We need a leader who will take the best decision for the State of Israel under the difficult current conditions. We need these two things: a decision, and a leader who will pound the table once and for all and declare that he has a plan. However, at this time we face a grave shortage of these two items.
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