Obama On Brink Of Deal For Middle East Peace Talks

The Guardian:

Barack Obama is close to brokering an Israeli-Palestinian deal that will allow him to announce a resumption of the long-stalled Middle East peace talks before the end of next month, according to US, Israeli, Palestinian and European officials.

Read the whole story: The Guardian

Comments

[newyorkid]

This is just laughable "partial freeze on the construction of settlements for 9 months" it means "partial ok of new iIIegal construction settlements." let's get rid of that artificial country and return it back to the PaIestinians.

[USAPresidentialPoll]

Your "solution" is laughable.

[Goefel]

That's not gonna happen, but this country can start to facilitate the return of Palestinian lands to the 1967 borders. Israel needs to be regulated by the United States. They have a bad image and they make us look like blind followers.
Israel believes it's a superior colonial super power and doesn't need to negotiate with it's neighbors. That plan is failing and in 50 years Arabs will completely outnumber Israel in the region.

There goose will be cooked, which is why I can't understand why they don't save face before it's too late. They fantasize about conquest, but time is against them.

[Farhan Hussain]

israel is going to put a temporary freeze on the settlements, which means they will resume the illegal settlements once Obama moves on to some other matter and forgets about Israel for the time being. Meanwhile the Palestinians keep on suffering, their land is being taken over, and theyre being kicked out of their homes.

Yea, pretty much nothing is going to change with Obama. same old same old.

[MemoryAlpha]

Observation:
There things that will change, but not for the better. The crisis situation in the United States is reaching a critical mass. Things will not continue as they have for the past eight years, no matter how hard Democrats and Republicans wish to enforce a status quo.

[stpmdn]

I tend to agree. This is just a delay tactic

[deminmo]

For the last couple of years, in the months of September
and October, there seems to be a push for a Palistinian
peace accord, and heightened talk from Israel for taking
out Iran's nuclear capabilities. This seems more an effort
to stall any move from Israel against Iran, than brokering
peace.

[yankees]

I wish Obama and all the people involved in these Peace Talks much success and speed.
It's too bad we all can't come together on this on a good thing our President is trying to do. Why the hate, there has been too much killing already, both Jews and Arabs. Can't we just back and trust Obama?

[mamacat]

It seems like most of the world's people want to see an end to violence in Palestine, but that doesn't mean it will happen. The most militant and extreme Jews and Arabs gravitate to the area, while moderates flee for more peaceful and habitable areas. Anyone in Palestine who declares he or she wants a fair peace, makes themself a target for assassination by either Jewish or Arab extremists.

There are things the American government, through the office of the President, can do to encourage a resolution, but it will be very, very difficult to accomplish a lasting peace, given the history of the last 120 years.

"I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish State." - Albert Einstein, April 17, 1938

[sparky73]

I think the only way there could be peace in the middle east is to have the jews leave Israel and give the land back to its rightful owners. I don't know why the jews have so much power in shaping US policy in the mid east?

[iqfinsvcs]

The unresolved issues of Israel’s right to exist and Palestinians’ right to their homeland have been major contributors to destabilization of the world’s economies due to wars and terrorism. America’s involvement in the mid-east has been devastating to our economy and we cannot continue to support Israel militarily and financially, unconditionally .

The US is facing major projected budget deficits and the rest of the world’s developed nations are now struggling to revive their own economies (yes all economies are now inextricably linked). The upshot is that at this critical juncture in our history, a single misstep could trigger a major disaster that no one wishes to contemplate. It is time for the US and President Obama to get tough with both sides. No additional Israeli settlements or expansion of territory and cessation of hostilities by the Palestinians, Hamas and Hezbollah should be minimum requirements for beginning the peace process.

Unlike President Bush, President Obama should not allow the Israelis to secretly abrogate prior agreements to freeze the expansion of settlements. The President might lose the support of Israelis and many in the local Jewish community as a result of a principled stand for a settlement freeze. Such support in exchange for the President’s “looking the other way” on settlement expansion is not worth the potential risks to our and the world’s economies, or the lives of our young men and women who eventually are called upon to fight our wars.

[Bushdepression]

With Israeli army veteran and dual national Rahm managing his datebook? I don't it'll be fair, just more window dressing to hand our resources to the Jewish state and hold off on a real peace accord.

[loki]

wont happen. There is one of these announcements every year. and every year they fail to ever happen.

[Lutfi]

For the sake of all children's on both side, I hope that you are wrong.

[Lutfi]

I do hope and wish for peace in the Middle east, the question is when the fruit of our President Obama labor come to be, what would all the AIPAC, Neo- cone, religious right, do with there self, I think we have seen enough suffering, we need to treat each other as human being first.

[MarcusT]

Do not worry. Obama makes no move without checking with AIPAC.

"...but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state with secure, recognized, defensible borders. And Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided."

Barak Obama, June 4, 2008. Addressing the AIPAC conference 12 hours after securing his party's nomination.

[Lutfi]

I think you are underestimating the rest of the American Jewish of faith who are very proud to be on the peace side, and they know the price, as for AIPAC its about money and control after a while it gets old. but thank you for your positive attitude.

[rblaquinta]

Since Obama became president the stock market stepped back from falling off a cliff. to go up 1500 plus points....very close to accomplishing an agreement in the middle east. North Korea close to making nice nice. Going to restructure our education system with 100 billion dollars and an amazing Secretary of Education Arney Duncun...will slowly turn around the unemployment numbers since we have had an ecomony of smoke and mirrors.....and now have to come to the reality of reeducating a whole new workforce to actually build something and people no longer living off credit ....getting through a health reform bill named for Sen. Kennedy..WHICH HE WILL!!!!!! President Obama you are amazing and you have not even been in office for a year!!!!!!! My only fear is that you only have two terms!!!!!

[semorg]

Only if there was more sanctions on Iran, then Israel would make peace with everyone. So common European powers, what's keeping from bringing peace to ME.

[semorg]

Partial freeze? That's laughable. Why isn't the world as tough on Israel as they are on other countries?

Fact: settlements are built on lands that legally does not belong to Israel. Now, when was a last time did you hear any news agency ever say that.

Partial freeze: we keep the land we've stolen but we wont steal as much as we had in the past anymore.

Since we are so generous, can you please go ahead and bomb Iran. Because Iran's influence will make it harder for us to keep stealing more lands in the future.

[AirForce Vet]

On the brink can mean many things to many people. It was mentioned that the POTUS is on the brink of brokering a peace talk deal between the Israelis and Palestinians. This sounds great, but I don’t except the pudding just because someone calls it pudding. I want to know what’s in the pudding. To get to this point or brink, what did we have to sell or except. Did we sell our souls, other people, or both? Did we except terms that are good for some rather than for all? If getting to this point or the brink meant that our government has allowed this nation to become a partner in crime then this is the same old policy. If gaining this deal meant that we are again traveling a path of hypocrisy as nation, then the eyes of the world will see through this haze. If we are traveling these paths of deception, this is not change, it is the same. Since we as a nation has the ambitious goal of serving the world, remember we must serve the great and small, the strong and the weak, as well as friend and foe. Also remember, all who claim to be friends are not friends.

[HumeSkeptic]

Based on the article, it seems to me that the "deal" is as follows:
1. Israel would temporarily cease its illegal settlement activity.
2.U.S would increase it's unjustified punishment of Iran, simply to please Israel.
3. A handpicked group of Palestinians would be allowed to sit in and listen to discussions among some nuclear powers deciding the fate of all Palestinians.