How The U.S. Bribed 'Palestinians' To Begin Talks With Israel

An interesting if somewhat sickening story to start off the New Year..

One of the big surprise stories surfacing is that the 'Palestinians' have finally agreed to begin negotiations with Israel without any preconditions, although they're very careful to label them as 'talks about talks' rather than any actual negotiations. That's probably accurate, since it's almost certain nothing will actually be accomplished.

The talks are being held in Amman, Jordan with Jordan's King Abdullah as mediator in the context of a Middle East Peace Quartet meeting (The United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations. The Israelis are sending Yitzhak Molcho, Israel's chief negotiator for talks with the 'Palestinians' and Fatah is sending Saeb Erekat, formerly the right fork of the execrable Yasser Arafat's tongue.

Two questions come to mind immediately. Why Jordan, and why did Fatah suddenly agree to sit down with the Israelis? The answers are simple once you connect the dots.

Why Jordan is simplicity itself. King Abdullah, along with a Bedouin minority rules over a country where 75% of the population identifies themselves as 'Palestinian', and where Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are increasingly popular.Jordan is another of those Arab countries like Egypt without oil income and King Abdullah has attempted to bridge Jordan's economic gap by becoming a U.S. ally and accepting close to $1 billion in American foreign aid.

Jordan has already seen a certain amount of Muslim Brotherhood sponsored unrest, largely from his 'Palestinian' citizens, and the last thing he wants is a Hamas dominated state next door in Judea and Samaria that might seek to overthrow him and take Jordan over as the actual 'Palestinian' state the way Arafat and Fatah did in the 1970's. He has every reason to anxiously support some kind of Fatah ruled state in hopes that even if Hamas takes over, they'll concentrate on trying to destroy Israel. leave him in peace and be content with that. Obviously King Abdullah has forgotten what happened to his father Hussein in the 1970's when Arafat and Fatah tried to take over Jordan and turn it into a 'Palestinian' state in 1970 with a very similar scenario, but that appears to be what King Abdullah has in mind.

As for why Fatah agreed to sit down with the Israelis, the answer's even simpler. Money talks, and they have nothing to lose anyway.

Some of you may recall seeing this under reported story about the U.S. Congress agreeing to release 20 percent of $187 million in U.S. aid to the 'Palestinians' that had been frozen because of 'Palestine's' bid for U.N. membership. That happened just a few days ago, and now we see the 'Palestinians' grudgingly agreeing to meet with the Israelis for the first time in months.

As one of my notorious Little Birdies whom actually works within the 'Palestinian' Authority informed me, I was entirely correct when I guessed this is no mere coincidence.This person had told me back when the funds were first frozen that it was only a matter of time until the 'Palestinians' got their usual jizya from the Obama Administration. And in our latest exchange, he informed me quite openly that the Obama Administration had made a solid proposition to Abbas and Fatah in exchange for freeing up the funds, and just sitting down with the Israelis was the price.

The 'Palestinians' aren't totally stupid, they know President Obama is coming up for re-election and is trying to convince Jews to vote for him, and that even the appearance of progress towards that mythical two-state solution looks good. So they went along. And why not? They have nothing to lose.

Abbas and Fatah aren't in a position to make any kind of binding deal anyway, not without the consent of Hamas. And even if they were, they have absolutely no inclination to do so. As Abbas has said many times, he's not prepared to make even a single concession on 'Palestinian' demands, and those demands aren't anything the Israelis can realistically accept unless they're suicidal.

At worst, the 'Palestinians' will walk away again with remarks for their groupies on the press and the so-called international community about how the Israelis are refusing to negotiate. At best, some of the goons in the Quartet may even successfully lean on Israel for some more unilateral concessions. And the important thing is, they get the money, honey, a nice chunk of which will also go to Hamas.

The 'Palestinians' managed with the willing help of President Obama to obtain $545.7 million courtesy of the US taxpayers in 2011, including the part that was frozen. That money is characterized as development and humanitarian aid, but it really continues to fund the War Against The Jews, since Fatah and Hamas can use it to free up money they already have for use elsewhere. In other words, the US government is funding anti-Semitic incitement and outright terrorism to the tune of well north of half a billion per year.

And it's going to continue. President Obama has already asked Congress for $513.4 million in aid for the 'Palestinians' in fiscal year 2012.

How The U.S. Bribed 'Palestinians' To Begin Talks With Israel

An interesting if somewhat sickening story to start off the New Year..

One of the big surprise stories surfacing is that the 'Palestinians' have finally agreed to begin negotiations with Israel without any preconditions, although they're very careful to label them as 'talks about talks' rather than any actual negotiations. That's probably accurate, since it's almost certain nothing will actually be accomplished.

The talks are being held in Amman, Jordan with Jordan's King Abdullah as mediator in the context of a Middle East Peace Quartet meeting (The United States, Russia, European Union and the United Nations. The Israelis are sending Yitzhak Molcho, Israel's chief negotiator for talks with the 'Palestinians' and Fatah is sending Saeb Erekat, formerly the right fork of the execrable Yasser Arafat's tongue.

Two questions come to mind immediately. Why Jordan, and why did Fatah suddenly agree to sit down with the Israelis? The answers are simple once you connect the dots.

Why Jordan is simplicity itself. King Abdullah, along with a Bedouin minority rules over a country where 75% of the population identifies themselves as 'Palestinian', and where Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood are increasingly popular.Jordan is another of those Arab countries like Egypt without oil income and King Abdullah has attempted to bridge Jordan's economic gap by becoming a U.S. ally and accepting close to $1 billion in American foreign aid.

Jordan has already seen a certain amount of Muslim Brotherhood sponsored unrest, largely from his 'Palestinian' citizens, and the last thing he wants is a Hamas dominated state next door in Judea and Samaria that might seek to overthrow him and take Jordan over as the actual 'Palestinian' state the way Arafat and Fatah did in the 1970's. He has every reason to anxiously support some kind of Fatah ruled state in hopes that even if Hamas takes over, they'll concentrate on trying to destroy Israel. leave him in peace and be content with that. Obviously King Abdullah has forgotten what happened to his father Hussein in the 1970's when Arafat and Fatah tried to take over Jordan and turn it into a 'Palestinian' state in 1970 with a very similar scenario, but that appears to be what King Abdullah has in mind.

As for why Fatah agreed to sit down with the Israelis, the answer's even simpler. Money talks, and they have nothing to lose anyway.

Some of you may recall seeing this under reported story about the U.S. Congress agreeing to release 20 percent of $187 million in U.S. aid to the 'Palestinians' that had been frozen because of 'Palestine's' bid for U.N. membership. That happened just a few days ago, and now we see the 'Palestinians' grudgingly agreeing to meet with the Israelis for the first time in months.

As one of my notorious Little Birdies whom actually works within the 'Palestinian' Authority informed me, I was entirely correct when I guessed this is no mere coincidence.This person had told me back when the funds were first frozen that it was only a matter of time until the 'Palestinians' got their usual jizya from the Obama Administration. And in our latest exchange, he informed me quite openly that the Obama Administration had made a solid proposition to Abbas and Fatah in exchange for freeing up the funds, and just sitting down with the Israelis was the price.

The 'Palestinians' aren't totally stupid, they know President Obama is coming up for re-election and is trying to convince Jews to vote for him, and that even the appearance of progress towards that mythical two-state solution looks good. So they went along. And why not? They have nothing to lose.

Abbas and Fatah aren't in a position to make any kind of binding deal anyway, not without the consent of Hamas. And even if they were, they have absolutely no inclination to do so. As Abbas has said many times, he's not prepared to make even a single concession on 'Palestinian' demands, and those demands aren't anything the Israelis can realistically accept unless they're suicidal.

At worst, the 'Palestinians' will walk away again with remarks for their groupies on the press and the so-called international community about how the Israelis are refusing to negotiate. At best, some of the goons in the Quartet may even successfully lean on Israel for some more unilateral concessions. And the important thing is, they get the money, honey, a nice chunk of which will also go to Hamas.

The 'Palestinians' managed with the willing help of President Obama to obtain $545.7 million courtesy of the US taxpayers in 2011, including the part that was frozen. That money is characterized as development and humanitarian aid, but it really continues to fund the War Against The Jews, since Fatah and Hamas can use it to free up money they already have for use elsewhere. In other words, the US government is funding anti-Semitic incitement and outright terrorism to the tune of well north of half a billion per year.

And it's going to continue. President Obama has already asked Congress for $513.4 million in aid for the 'Palestinians' in fiscal year 2012.

Some Ideas To Help The Palestinians With Their Financial Woes

'Palestinian' unelected Prime Minister Selim Fayyad is claiming that the 'Palestinian' Authority is in desperate financial straits:

The Palestinian Authority is "fast approaching the point of being completely incapacitated" by Israel's refusal to hand over tax revenues belonging to the authority, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday.

Israel's freeze on the taxes and fees it collects for the Palestinian Authority at borders has deprived the government of two-thirds of its normal revenue since Nov. 1, making it hard to pay salaries and fix infrastructure, Fayyad said.

"This is our money," he said. "It has nothing to do with donor assistance or anything like that."

Actually Selim, it is donor money, since all of 'Palestine's' infrastructure and the cost of its government has been derived from donor money ever since Oslo was signed at the beginning of one of the most successful con jobs in history . But aside from that, I sympathize. Who would of thought that the 'Palestinians' announcing Oslo was null and void and deliberately breaking the Oslo Accords and the Road Map they signed by unilaterally going to the UN would lead to such dire consequences!

Seeing as the Fatah ruled PA also gives a nice slice of the aid it receives to the genocidal Hamas and is now putting together a unity government with them, one could hardly expect Israel to finance its enemies, can one?

Nevertheless, the humanitarian in me feels compelled to offer some helpful suggestions to the 'Palestinian' Authority to help improve things:

Get Abbas and Fatah to use the $1.75 billion Palestine Investment Fund for the people that it was intended for. I'm sure Abbas and his cronies from the Fatah Old Guard would gladly want to replace the money they umm..'borrowed' for 'Palestine'. All Selim Fayyad probably needs to do is ask them and I'm certain they'll be more than willing to empty all those bank accounts in the EU and the Emirates and come across.

Right now, the 'Palestinian' Authority sends Sufa Arafat $100,000 per month to support her in her tony apartment in the best part of Paris. Perhaps she could learn to downgrade her lifestyle and live on a bit less.

Neither Jordan or Israel is going to attack 'Palestine'. A large part of the 'Palestinian' budget goes for 'security forces' many of whom are outright terrorists by any definition of the word whom belong to groups like the Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade.One almost gets the impression that the large sums of money spent are more to protect Abbas and his cronies than the people they rule over,but of course that couldn't be true. Large cutbacks would seem to make sense.

The 'Palestinian' Authority payroll is crammed full of no-show jobs and people who get a paycheck for no discernible reason except they're connected to someone in the regime. When the Saudis gave their first financial aid to 'Palestine' they insisted on an audit and Fayyad found over 30,000 paychecks on the PA payroll going out to people that didn't exist before Abbas and the rest of the Fatah Old Guard made him stop. Even the World Bank admits that probably half of the donor money given to the 'Palestinians' ends up being, in the World Bank's words, 'diverted'. A complete audit would likely find millions of dollars worth of savings and money the PA could use elsewhere.

The 'Palestinian' Authority spends millions every month in generous salaries to jailed terrorists convicted in Israeli civilian courts of the most inhumane murders of civilians. Now, I realize that to Abbas and the 'Palestinians', people like the sniper who targeted and murdered 10-month-old Shalhevet Pas in her stroller or the two ghouls that butchered the Fogel family are Holy warriors. But it occurs to me that since their room and board is already paid for by the State of Israel, a great deal of money can be saved and used for more worthy purposes if these killers were axed from the payroll. Ditto with the money Fatah sends to Hamas every month, another savings..

As a side benefit, doing this might even convince the Israelis that the 'Palestinians' aren't trying to encourage terrorism or make it pay for the perpetrators. Call it a sacrifice for peace,no?

As a matter of fact, along those lines here's another suggestion. Since the 'Palestinians' insist this money is theirs, they could encourage the Israelis to put these monies into a fund that would pay damages from civil judgments obtained in Israel's courts by Israeli victims of terrorism who have suffered property loss, lost loved ones or whom need lifetime medical care because of injuries suffered in things like homicide bombing perpetrated by the 'Palestinians'.

Think what a magnanimous and lovely gesture it would be on the part of the 'Palestinians' to suggest this or to at least acquiesce to it! It would cost them nothing since it's money they're not getting their hands on anyway, it would build good will among Israelis and world opinion and it would help make the impression that the bad old days of the 'Palestinians' committing and abetting terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians are a thing of the past.

Just look at how much mileage the Germans got out of what were relatively scant reparations for what was done to the Jews during the Nazi era! This is nothing less than an opportunity for the 'Palestinians' to score a major propaganda coup.

To summarize, steal less, cut the unnecessary fat in the budget and make a few gestures and concessions towards the Israelis 'for peace'.

Yes, yes, I know, afwan, mafi mushkila ‌Sadiqi, you're most welcome.

After all, I'm here to help. Peace!

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

Some Ideas To Help The Palestinians With Their Financial Woes

'Palestinian' unelected Prime Minister Selim Fayyad is claiming that the 'Palestinian' Authority is in desperate financial straits:

The Palestinian Authority is "fast approaching the point of being completely incapacitated" by Israel's refusal to hand over tax revenues belonging to the authority, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Thursday.

Israel's freeze on the taxes and fees it collects for the Palestinian Authority at borders has deprived the government of two-thirds of its normal revenue since Nov. 1, making it hard to pay salaries and fix infrastructure, Fayyad said.

"This is our money," he said. "It has nothing to do with donor assistance or anything like that."

Actually Selim, it is donor money, since all of 'Palestine's' infrastructure and the cost of its government has been derived from donor money ever since Oslo was signed at the beginning of one of the most successful con jobs in history . But aside from that, I sympathize. Who would of thought that the 'Palestinians' announcing Oslo was null and void and deliberately breaking the Oslo Accords and the Road Map they signed by unilaterally going to the UN would lead to such dire consequences!

Seeing as the Fatah ruled PA also gives a nice slice of the aid it receives to the genocidal Hamas and is now putting together a unity government with them, one could hardly expect Israel to finance its enemies, can one?

Nevertheless, the humanitarian in me feels compelled to offer some helpful suggestions to the 'Palestinian' Authority to help improve things:

Get Abbas and Fatah to use the $1.75 billion Palestine Investment Fund for the people that it was intended for. I'm sure Abbas and his cronies from the Fatah Old Guard would gladly want to replace the money they umm..'borrowed' for 'Palestine'. All Selim Fayyad probably needs to do is ask them and I'm certain they'll be more than willing to empty all those bank accounts in the EU and the Emirates and come across.

Right now, the 'Palestinian' Authority sends Sufa Arafat $100,000 per month to support her in her tony apartment in the best part of Paris. Perhaps she could learn to downgrade her lifestyle and live on a bit less.

Neither Jordan or Israel is going to attack 'Palestine'. A large part of the 'Palestinian' budget goes for 'security forces' many of whom are outright terrorists by any definition of the word whom belong to groups like the Tanzim and the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade.One almost gets the impression that the large sums of money spent are more to protect Abbas and his cronies than the people they rule over,but of course that couldn't be true. Large cutbacks would seem to make sense.

The 'Palestinian' Authority payroll is crammed full of no-show jobs and people who get a paycheck for no discernible reason except they're connected to someone in the regime. When the Saudis gave their first financial aid to 'Palestine' they insisted on an audit and Fayyad found over 30,000 paychecks on the PA payroll going out to people that didn't exist before Abbas and the rest of the Fatah Old Guard made him stop. Even the World Bank admits that probably half of the donor money given to the 'Palestinians' ends up being, in the World Bank's words, 'diverted'. A complete audit would likely find millions of dollars worth of savings and money the PA could use elsewhere.

The 'Palestinian' Authority spends millions every month in generous salaries to jailed terrorists convicted in Israeli civilian courts of the most inhumane murders of civilians. Now, I realize that to Abbas and the 'Palestinians', people like the sniper who targeted and murdered 10-month-old Shalhevet Pas in her stroller or the two ghouls that butchered the Fogel family are Holy warriors. But it occurs to me that since their room and board is already paid for by the State of Israel, a great deal of money can be saved and used for more worthy purposes if these killers were axed from the payroll. Ditto with the money Fatah sends to Hamas every month, another savings..

As a side benefit, doing this might even convince the Israelis that the 'Palestinians' aren't trying to encourage terrorism or make it pay for the perpetrators. Call it a sacrifice for peace,no?

As a matter of fact, along those lines here's another suggestion. Since the 'Palestinians' insist this money is theirs, they could encourage the Israelis to put these monies into a fund that would pay damages from civil judgments obtained in Israel's courts by Israeli victims of terrorism who have suffered property loss, lost loved ones or whom need lifetime medical care because of injuries suffered in things like homicide bombing perpetrated by the 'Palestinians'.

Think what a magnanimous and lovely gesture it would be on the part of the 'Palestinians' to suggest this or to at least acquiesce to it! It would cost them nothing since it's money they're not getting their hands on anyway, it would build good will among Israelis and world opinion and it would help make the impression that the bad old days of the 'Palestinians' committing and abetting terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians are a thing of the past.

Just look at how much mileage the Germans got out of what were relatively scant reparations for what was done to the Jews during the Nazi era! This is nothing less than an opportunity for the 'Palestinians' to score a major propaganda coup.

To summarize, steal less, cut the unnecessary fat in the budget and make a few gestures and concessions towards the Israelis 'for peace'.

Yes, yes, I know, afwan, mafi mushkila ‌Sadiqi, you're most welcome.

After all, I'm here to help. Peace!

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The 'Peace Process' R.I. P.

The so-called Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the 'Palestinians' is essentially dead, and it will be quite some time before there's an attempt to revive it.

Israeli statesman Abba Eban's famous quote about the 'Palestinians' never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity has come true once more, although in fairness they had a large assist this time from President Obama.

Mahmoud Abbas has once again refused to enter direct negotiations with Israel, telling new US envoy David Hale that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless the Israeli government met the preconditions of freezing all construction in what the 'Palestinians' consider settlements,including East Jerusalem and accepting the pre-1967 cease fire lines as the basis for future borders in any two state solution.

In other words, Abbas is willing to sit down with the Israelis only if there's nothing much left to negotiate. This is roughly the equivalent of agreeing to go to Las Vegas and place a bet on the roulette wheel only if your winnings are guaranteed in advance.

Another settlement freeze is not on the table and Abbas knows it. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu already gave the 'Palestinians' a 10 month freeze as a unilateral concession in an attempt to get talks going, something that caused him considerable political damage at home. In response,the 'Palestinians' stonewalled for 9 1/2 months and then used Netanyahu's refusal to extend the freeze indefinitely as an excuse to bail out of talks.

Netanyahu has made it quite clear that he's not going to be fooled again. He's especially not going to do it when the Israeli public is already upset over high housing costs.

Abbas also knows that no Israeli government is going to redivide Jerusalem, especially since Abbas and his friend in the 'Palestinian' Authority have made it clear that no Jews will be allowed in their little reichlet. An Israeli government that agreed to that would not only be creating a large number of homeless Jewish refugees but would be placing Judaism's most holy sites under Muslim control while making them off limits to Jews. The Israelis have experienced in the past what that means. It isn't going to happen, and Abbas' demands have only made the vast majority of Israelis realize that Abbas and Fatah are not serious about a genuine peace and likely never were.

Abbas maneuvered things to a dead end with three steps guaranteed to kill off any chance of a realistic deal. First he and his minions declared the Oslo Accords dead , thus nullifying the entire basis of the agreement between Israel and the 'Palestinian' Authority. Next, he signed a unity agreement with the genocidal Hamas while vowing he would not make a single concession to Israel . And finally, he abrogated both Oslo and the Road Map in an attempt to have the UN Security Council unilaterally declare 'Palestine' a member state based on the borders the 'Palestinians' claimed - all of Judea and Samaria and all of East Jerusalem.

The only real result of this gambit was to get 'Palestine' elected to membership in UNESCO. That turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory that resulted in the organization's budget being slashed to the bone when the US, Canada and several other large donors ended their funding and the Israelis voted to no longer forward the approximately $100 million per month they collect in taxes and duties to the 'Palestinian' Authority. Aside from the UN fiasco, the final straw for the Israelis was Mahmoud Abbas personally greeting the terrorist murderers freed in the Gilad Shalit deal as 'holy warriors' and gifting them with $5,000 each and a free house.

While the Palestinians bear primary responsibility for the current state of affairs, the midwife to the stillborn corpse known as the Middle East peace process was none other than President Barack Obama.

Coming into office with an animus against Israel nurtured by long time associates like Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi, convinced that Israel was the problem and that pressuring them was the solution, the president not only created a hostile climate with the Israelis but gave assurances to Abbas and the 'Palestinians' that he could deliver the Jews on a platter.

He started out by having Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blatantly lie about President's Bush's 2004 letter and assurances to Ariel Sharon that recognized Israel’s claim in any peace agreement to the parts of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) that contain large Jewish communities. Along with US and EU guarantees that Gaza would never be a security problem once the Israelis pulled out, President Bush's assurances were the entire basis under which then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon signed on to the Road Map. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton simply claimed it never happened and reneged on it.

The president continued by choosing Arab-American ex-Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy for Middle East peace, whose sole real contribution was to threaten Israel with a cut off of aid and to remain in a fog about how the Israeli-Arab conflict was really just Northern Ireland redux.

While Abbas may never have actually had any serous intent on negotiating anything, it was President Obama who created the two preconditions that now hold things up, at least according to the 'Palestinians'. As Mahmoud Abbas himself related, it was President Obama's idea to make a building freeze a major issue when it wasn't before, even to the point of creating a major diplomatic incident between the US and Israel over what was essentially a local zoning issue and then harshly criticizing Israel for rejecting an offer to resume the freeze that the US never made in the first place.

There was the frosty and humiliating reception for PM Netanyahu at the White House that would have been rude and dismissive of a fourth world despot, let alone the leader of an American ally.

And last May, the president decided to double down on his previous failures by attempting to ambush PM Netanyahu while he was en route to address a joint session of the US Congress. After assuring the Israelis that an upcoming speech would not advance any new proposals, this president endorsed borders based on the pre-'67 lines as the official US position, a radical stance no US president had ever embraced before.

It's hardly any wonder that the Israelis have no trust in the current administration.In view of what's occurred since his inauguration, President Obama's recent conversation with French President Sarkozy on what a 'liar' Netanyahu is and how hard the Israeli PM is to deal with provokes unintended laughter in anyone who's actually been following what been going on.

From Mahmoud Abbas' point of view, he has no reason to trust anything President Obama says either. Approaching his third anniversary as the 'Palestinian' Authority's unelected dictator, Abbas can voice his frustration over President Obama with a certain amount of justification.

After observing President Obama's creation of a hostile relationship with Israel and its leaders (and not understanding how Congress and elections work here in America), Abbas had no reason not to believe that President Obama wasn't going to be able to deliver on the promises he made to Abbas, the first world leader the president phoned once he took over.

When President Obama made a building freeze and the pre-'67 borders America's new line in the sand, Abbas hopped right on board. After all, how could he be less intransigent and demanding than an American president?

Now, Abbas is stuck with that position and can't afford politically to back down. Instead, he bet his people's future on a crap shoot at the UN - and rolled snake eyes.

Not that Abbas and his cronies are going to lose out personally. As ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan admitted, Abbas personally stole at least $1.3 billion from the Palestine Investment Fund, money Yasser Arafat skimmed off humanitarian aid and 'taxes' paid to Fatah from 'Palestinian' businessmen as a price for being allowed to operate. Abbas' sons Yasser and Tareq have similarly benefited, as have a number of other well connected Fatah cronies. Sufa Arafat still lives in her chic apartment in the best part of Paris on her 'allowance' from the PA of $100,000 per month.

The Fatah money is squirreled away in Europe and the Emirates, and Fatah's old guard and their families will relocate there, or to Jordan as things unravel, since most of them have Jordanian citizenship. The remainder of the 'Palestinians' who are not well connected or monied will likely come under Hamas rule, which the majority of them favor anyway.

This is the end result of a shockingly bad idea of President Clinton's , that signing the Oslo Accords and bringing a thug like Yasser Arafat and his friends over from Tunis to rule over the 'Palestinians' would somehow end up as peace.

A lot of people have paid in blood and anguish for that mistake, and there may be more before its over.

please donate...it helps me write more gooder!

The 'Peace Process' R.I. P.

The so-called Middle East peace process between the Israelis and the 'Palestinians' is essentially dead, and it will be quite some time before there's an attempt to revive it.

Israeli statesman Abba Eban's famous quote about the 'Palestinians' never missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity has come true once more, although in fairness they had a large assist this time from President Obama.

Mahmoud Abbas has once again refused to enter direct negotiations with Israel, telling new US envoy David Hale that the Palestinians would not return to the negotiating table with Israel unless the Israeli government met the preconditions of freezing all construction in what the 'Palestinians' consider settlements,including East Jerusalem and accepting the pre-1967 cease fire lines as the basis for future borders in any two state solution.

In other words, Abbas is willing to sit down with the Israelis only if there's nothing much left to negotiate. This is roughly the equivalent of agreeing to go to Las Vegas and place a bet on the roulette wheel only if your winnings are guaranteed in advance.

Another settlement freeze is not on the table and Abbas knows it. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu already gave the 'Palestinians' a 10 month freeze as a unilateral concession in an attempt to get talks going, something that caused him considerable political damage at home. In response,the 'Palestinians' stonewalled for 9 1/2 months and then used Netanyahu's refusal to extend the freeze indefinitely as an excuse to bail out of talks.

Netanyahu has made it quite clear that he's not going to be fooled again. He's especially not going to do it when the Israeli public is already upset over high housing costs.

Abbas also knows that no Israeli government is going to redivide Jerusalem, especially since Abbas and his friend in the 'Palestinian' Authority have made it clear that no Jews will be allowed in their little reichlet. An Israeli government that agreed to that would not only be creating a large number of homeless Jewish refugees but would be placing Judaism's most holy sites under Muslim control while making them off limits to Jews. The Israelis have experienced in the past what that means. It isn't going to happen, and Abbas' demands have only made the vast majority of Israelis realize that Abbas and Fatah are not serious about a genuine peace and likely never were.

Abbas maneuvered things to a dead end with three steps guaranteed to kill off any chance of a realistic deal. First he and his minions declared the Oslo Accords dead , thus nullifying the entire basis of the agreement between Israel and the 'Palestinian' Authority. Next, he signed a unity agreement with the genocidal Hamas while vowing he would not make a single concession to Israel . And finally, he abrogated both Oslo and the Road Map in an attempt to have the UN Security Council unilaterally declare 'Palestine' a member state based on the borders the 'Palestinians' claimed - all of Judea and Samaria and all of East Jerusalem.

The only real result of this gambit was to get 'Palestine' elected to membership in UNESCO. That turned out to be a Pyrrhic victory that resulted in the organization's budget being slashed to the bone when the US, Canada and several other large donors ended their funding and the Israelis voted to no longer forward the approximately $100 million per month they collect in taxes and duties to the 'Palestinian' Authority. Aside from the UN fiasco, the final straw for the Israelis was Mahmoud Abbas personally greeting the terrorist murderers freed in the Gilad Shalit deal as 'holy warriors' and gifting them with $5,000 each and a free house.

While the Palestinians bear primary responsibility for the current state of affairs, the midwife to the stillborn corpse known as the Middle East peace process was none other than President Barack Obama.

Coming into office with an animus against Israel nurtured by long time associates like Reverend Wright, Bill Ayers and Rashid Khalidi, convinced that Israel was the problem and that pressuring them was the solution, the president not only created a hostile climate with the Israelis but gave assurances to Abbas and the 'Palestinians' that he could deliver the Jews on a platter.

He started out by having Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blatantly lie about President's Bush's 2004 letter and assurances to Ariel Sharon that recognized Israel’s claim in any peace agreement to the parts of Judea and Samaria (AKA The West Bank) that contain large Jewish communities. Along with US and EU guarantees that Gaza would never be a security problem once the Israelis pulled out, President Bush's assurances were the entire basis under which then Israeli PM Ariel Sharon signed on to the Road Map. President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton simply claimed it never happened and reneged on it.

The president continued by choosing Arab-American ex-Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy for Middle East peace, whose sole real contribution was to threaten Israel with a cut off of aid and to remain in a fog about how the Israeli-Arab conflict was really just Northern Ireland redux.

While Abbas may never have actually had any serous intent on negotiating anything, it was President Obama who created the two preconditions that now hold things up, at least according to the 'Palestinians'. As Mahmoud Abbas himself related, it was President Obama's idea to make a building freeze a major issue when it wasn't before, even to the point of creating a major diplomatic incident between the US and Israel over what was essentially a local zoning issue and then harshly criticizing Israel for rejecting an offer to resume the freeze that the US never made in the first place.

There was the frosty and humiliating reception for PM Netanyahu at the White House that would have been rude and dismissive of a fourth world despot, let alone the leader of an American ally.

And last May, the president decided to double down on his previous failures by attempting to ambush PM Netanyahu while he was en route to address a joint session of the US Congress. After assuring the Israelis that an upcoming speech would not advance any new proposals, this president endorsed borders based on the pre-'67 lines as the official US position, a radical stance no US president had ever embraced before.

It's hardly any wonder that the Israelis have no trust in the current administration.In view of what's occurred since his inauguration, President Obama's recent conversation with French President Sarkozy on what a 'liar' Netanyahu is and how hard the Israeli PM is to deal with provokes unintended laughter in anyone who's actually been following what been going on.

From Mahmoud Abbas' point of view, he has no reason to trust anything President Obama says either. Approaching his third anniversary as the 'Palestinian' Authority's unelected dictator, Abbas can voice his frustration over President Obama with a certain amount of justification.

After observing President Obama's creation of a hostile relationship with Israel and its leaders (and not understanding how Congress and elections work here in America), Abbas had no reason not to believe that President Obama wasn't going to be able to deliver on the promises he made to Abbas, the first world leader the president phoned once he took over.

When President Obama made a building freeze and the pre-'67 borders America's new line in the sand, Abbas hopped right on board. After all, how could he be less intransigent and demanding than an American president?

Now, Abbas is stuck with that position and can't afford politically to back down. Instead, he bet his people's future on a crap shoot at the UN - and rolled snake eyes.

Not that Abbas and his cronies are going to lose out personally. As ousted Fatah official Muhammad Dahlan admitted, Abbas personally stole at least $1.3 billion from the Palestine Investment Fund, money Yasser Arafat skimmed off humanitarian aid and 'taxes' paid to Fatah from 'Palestinian' businessmen as a price for being allowed to operate. Abbas' sons Yasser and Tareq have similarly benefited, as have a number of other well connected Fatah cronies. Sufa Arafat still lives in her chic apartment in the best part of Paris on her 'allowance' from the PA of $100,000 per month.

The Fatah money is squirreled away in Europe and the Emirates, and Fatah's old guard and their families will relocate there, or to Jordan as things unravel, since most of them have Jordanian citizenship. The remainder of the 'Palestinians' who are not well connected or monied will likely come under Hamas rule, which the majority of them favor anyway.

This is the end result of a shockingly bad idea of President Clinton's , that signing the Oslo Accords and bringing a thug like Yasser Arafat and his friends over from Tunis to rule over the 'Palestinians' would somehow end up as peace.

A lot of people have paid in blood and anguish for that mistake, and there may be more before its over.

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