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Laurel Ackerman

Israel Delays Approval Of East Jerusalem Housing : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...story.php

Israel Palestine Peace talks East Jerusalem Housing

shared by Laurel Ackerman on 14 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked a government panel to put off final approval of 2,500 new apartments in east Jerusalem, an official said Monday
  • Amid reports of an unofficial, foreign-mediated cease-fire, Palestinian militants appeared to be stilling their rocket and mortar fire Monday, and Israel was refraining from retaliating for previous attacks.
  • Israel's controversial foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, voiced concerns that any lull would merely allow Hamas to strengthen and regroup. He told Israel Radio that restraint was "a grave mistake" and that Israel's main objective should be "the toppling of the Hamas regime."
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • no confirmation Monday that cease-fire conditions had been nailed down
  • The easing of tensions along the Gaza border came as the Palestinian Authority moved forward with plans to gain international recognition for an independent state. The Palestinians hope to take their case to the United Nations in September and sidestep talks with Israel
  • Negotiations with Netanyahu never got off the ground because he refuses to commit to an internationally mandated settlement freeze, and Palestinians say they won't negotiate without one.
  • The Palestinians plan to tell a conference of donor countries this week that they are ready for statehood.
  • Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has been laying the groundwork with a series of developments and reforms.
  • Ali Jarbawi, the Palestinian minister of planning, said Monday that the Palestinian government has reduced its dependence on foreign aid by 35 percent in the past two years
  • One added that Netanyahu's office had asked the Interior Ministry to delay the discussion of the project, citing pressure from the Quartet of international peacemakers — the U.S., European Union, United Nations and Russia
  • Netanyahu on Monday accused the international community — "people with good intentions," he called them — of putting peace even further out of reach by telling the Palestinians they don't have to negotiate.
  • Laurel Ackerman on 14 Apr 11
     
    How does the conflict in Israel affect the futures of Palestinian children compared to Israeli children?   "Israel Delays Approval Of East Jerusalem Housing ." National Public Radio. NPR, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. . Summary: Israel is building in East Jerusalem, a part of Jerusalem under Palestinian control. Along with that, Israel and Palestinians have been fighting; however, they are trying to get a cease-fire. Even with an unofficial cease-fire, Israel is delaying the East Jerusalem housing project because of pressure from the Quartet although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is against the settlement freeze. But, Palestine will not negotiate an official cease-fire without one. 
Joy Merlino

A Bold New Palestinian Approach Can Succeed - Council on Foreign Relations - 0 views

www.cfr.org/...p23784

Palestine Independence

shared by Joy Merlino on 08 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • The demolition of East Jerusalem's Shepherd Hotel this week to make way for a new Jewish housing development follows two years of failure by the Obama administration in bringing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table.
  • Yet it should not obscure a revolutionary new Palestinian approach towards statehood that is producing results. While the international community has spent the past two years focused on Israeli settlement activity – allowing the issue to thwart negotiations to end the conflict – Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, has made significant headway in the West Bank. Under his leadership, the PA is taking steps to help Palestine become a fully functioning state. This pragmatic “bottom up” effort reflects nothing short of a thoroughly reconstructed Palestinian approach towards peace with Israel.
  • Mr Fayyad's strategy is one of self-reliance and self-empowerment; his focus is on good government, economic opportunity, and law and order for the Palestinians – and security for Israel by extension– removing whatever pretexts may exist for Israel's continued occupation of the Palestinian territories. He has abandoned “armed struggle” and international intervention – the traditional Palestinian approaches to attaining nationalist objectives. Instead, by changing social and political realities and concretely preparing for independence, Mr Fayyad is trying to change perceptions of what is possible.
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  • Since 2007 when Mr Fayyad took over, the West Bank economy has taken off.
  • Government spending has remained within budgetary targets and improved tax collection rates have resulted in higher than projected domestic tax revenues. Unemployment, close to 20 per cent in 2008, has fallen by nearly a third. More than 120 schools have been built in the past two years, along with 1,100 miles of road and 900 miles of water networks. the prime minister's goal has been for Palestinians to be prepared for de facto statehood by 2011; from an economic and institutional standpoint, he has achieved this.
  • Mr Fayyad's Palestinian critics accuse him of naivety, however noble his intentions. They argue that Israel will never allow the Palestinians to succeed. They want to declare independence now. Yet proclaiming independence without negotiating with Israel will create a state that controls only 40 per cent of the West Bank, leaving Gaza in Hamas's control and all of Jerusalem in Israel's.
  • Israel should end its ambivalence and recognise that Mr Fayyad and PA president Mahmoud Abbas are the best Palestinian partners they are likely to find.
  • Mr Fayyad does not seek to establish Palestine unilaterally – he recognises that Israeli partnership is required.
  • Fayyadism alone will not resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Only an agreement accepted by Israelis and Palestinians can do that. But Fayyadism is helping support that effort, and preparing the groundwork for peace and Palestinian statehood, in a way that negotiations alone and armed struggle never could.
  • Joy Merlino on 08 Mar 11
     
    How does the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affect the futures of both Israeli and Palestinian children? Danin, Robert. "A Bold New Palestinian Approach Can Succeed ." Council on Foreign Relations. N.p., 11 Jan. 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. . Summary: The Palestinian Authority prime minister Salam Fayyad, has decided to embark on a different strategy in regard to peace with Israel. He has "abandoned 'armed struggle' and international intervention... and instead, by changing social and political realities & concretely preparing for independence, Mr. Fayyah is trying to change perceptions of what is possible." From an economical standpoint, the strategy seems to be working. The economy has been boosted, & Palestine is moving more and more towards being able to become an independent state. Reflection: In theory, this is a great was for Palestine to work with Israel. However, time will tell how this new strategy will pan out. It may be that Israel would take advantage an idealist such as the prime minister, & it may be also that the Palestinian people will not stand behind a solution that is this inactive. Time will tell if this new strategy is a positive step towards Palestinian independence, or if it is merely an idealistic dream. 
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