STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BAKER PLAN:
12/6/06 Baker report: Israel must withdraw from Golan
5/31/07:
U.S. envoy to PA slams Israel for refusing to ease PA conditions.
Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top American security envoy to the Palestinian Authority, has criticized Israel for its failure to help define a "security horizon" for the Palestinians and its refusal to ease conditions in the Palestinian Authority.
In his reports to Washington, Dayton says forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have improved their performance in recent battles with Hamas.
Dayton told the United States Congress and Department that the security force loyal to Abbas was demonstrating satisfactory progress and that he detected signs that Hamas was weakening. Among other things, Abbas loyalists had blocked a Hamas offensive despite a high number of fatalities in their ranks, and closed two tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt, Dayton said.
Psalm 83
KEEP NOT silence, O God; hold not Your peace or be still, O God.
For, behold, Your enemies are in tumult, and those who hate You have raised their heads.
They lay crafty schemes against Your people and consult together against Your hidden and precious ones.
They have said, Come, and let us wipe them out as a nation; let the name of Israel be in remembrance no more.
For they have consulted together with one accord and one heart; against You they make a covenant-- The tents of Edom and the Ishmaelites, of Moab and the Hagrites, Gebal and Ammon and Amalek, the Philistines, with the inhabitants of Tyre. Assyria also has joined with them; they have helped the children of Lot [the Ammonites and the Moabites] and have been an arm to them.
Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
Do to them as [You did to] the Midianites, as to Sisera and Jabin at the brook of Kishon, Who perished at Endor, who became like manure for the earth. Make their nobles like Oreb and Zeeb, yes, all their princes as Zebah and Zalmunna, Who say, Let us take possession for ourselves of the pastures of God.
O my God, make them like whirling dust, like stubble or chaff before the wind! As fire consumes the forest, and as the flame sets the mountains ablaze, So pursue and afflict them with Your tempest and terrify them with Your tornado or hurricane. Fill their faces with shame, that they may seek, inquire for, and insistently require Your name, O Lord. Let them be put to shame and dismayed forever; yes, let them be put to shame and perish, That they may know that You, Whose name alone is the Lord, are the Most High over all the earth.
SELAHUPDATES II: 6/1/07Dead Sea, Jordan, 20 May 2007 – Israel will respond “as soon as possible” to the Arab peace initiative which was reaffirmed by the Arab League at their summit in Riyadh earlier this year, Israeli Vice-Prime Minister Shimon Peres told participants at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East. “This is the position of the government of Israel. We are ready to make a counter-proposal. And, we are ready to sit down with whomever you want – the Saudis, the Arab League – and we shall try to air out the differences between us.” The World Economic Forum on the Middle East has brought together more than 1,200 business, government and civil society leaders from 56 countries to the Dead Sea. The meeting closes today.
On the podium with Peres, Amre Moussa, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, said: “We will wait to see if they put something serious on the table.” The Arab proposal calls for Israel to withdraw from all disputed territories, to recognize ”an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” and to agree to a “just solution” for the Palestinian refugees. In exchange, 22 Arab countries would recognize the state of Israel and normalize relations with the country. “Arab countries have adopted a unanimous and collective initiative offering the hand of peace to Israel,” said Moussa. “We have received no counter-offer, just gestures. But we consider this year as crucial. We want to reach a conclusion when the window of opportunity is open.”
Peres and Moussa also discussed the fighting in the Gaza Strip among Palestinians that has led to Israeli military action. “It was bound to happen,” Moussa said. “The embargo [by Israel] and starvation have led to that.” Observed Peres: “There was a unity government but not a united policy. They don’t act in concert.” Also on the panel, Saeb Erekat, Chief Negotiator for the Palestinian National Authority, argued that the factional strife in Gaza should not obscure what is at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict. “The real issue is that you have an occupation that has been there for 40 years.”
Erekat told participants that conditions in the Palestinian Territories have deteriorated. Without funds withheld by Israel, the government is unable to pay teachers and healthcare workers. He expressed concern that the situation was undermining public support for moderate Palestinians. “You are destroying us; you are destroying our social fabric,” Erekat declared. “Get rid of the occupation if you don’t want to see Al Qaeda and extremism.” He called on Israel to accept the Arab peace initiative. “If we leave things in this region to conflict and war, and try to resolve issues through guns, then this region is doomed, and we will go through the 21st century in darkness.”
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas.
Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests.
World Economic Forum on the Middle East 2007
Putting Diversity to Work
Dead Sea, 18-20 May 2007
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