Abbas: We will not agree to anything short of a fully autonomous Palestinian state

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4501974,00.html

The Palestinian leadership will not agree to anything less than a fully-autonomous state with East Jerusalem as its capital, will not cave into pressure and will not relinquish its national rights, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday.

The Fatah Central Committee held a special meeting Saturday to discuss the results of Abbas' Washington meeting with US President Barack Obama in the beginning of the week.

The committee members expressed their support of Abbas, and called for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, leaving neither military nor civilian presence there. They also called to find a "just" solution to the Palestinian refugees issue, based on UN Resolution 194. The committee members also rejected Israel's demand for recognition as a "Jewish state."

[Loudly]

1. Nah, the Palestinian capital is Gaza City.

And the capital of Israel is Tel Aviv.

That's a reasonable compromise.

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Just like the capital of the US is Anchorage, Alaska?

Fact: the administrative centre of government for Palestine is Ramallah, just like the administrative centre of government for Israel is Tel Aviv. Both claim Jerusalem as their capital and at some point in the future they're likely to share it. But Gaza City? Nah....

[Loudly]

3. OK but Ramallah is unsuitable. No West Bank location is suitable.

Too difficult to secure and unnecessarily provocative.

Both sides need to back away from Jerusalem for their secular administrative identities.

And the only way to share Jerusalem is to treat it like an interdenominational Vatican City.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. What do you mean, unnecessarily provocative?

How?

[azurnoir]

6. odd no one even mentions Christains in these debates n/t

[Loudly]

7. Christians seem content to rejoice in the spirit of their Lord.

And don't seem so bent on "possessing" Jerusalem.

Maybe they have a healthier attitude about everyone just being a visitor to this life.

In this world rather than of this world.

[azurnoir]

10. 9 Crusades might suggest differently but at present

there seems to be a contingent of Christians willing to wait for the 3rd temple to level it all out and some who just stay quietly in sidelines

[Violet_Crumble]

11. If only you'd told the IRA that, The Troubles would never have happened! n/t

[Violet_Crumble]

8. Yeah. I'd really like to know why that poster thinks Ramallah is provocative...

To who and why?

[azurnoir]

9. Not to mention more "difficult to secure" than Gaza City

how so and why?

[azurnoir]

5. is this unrealistic? anything else would simply rubber stamp the current situation

[bemildred]

12. What's unrealistic is expecting peace to come from continued subjugation of one people by another.

Not unlike expecting slaves to miss Ol' Massa when he is gone. Sorry, they just don't. Ol' Massa misses his servants plenty, but they don't miss him much.

But hey let's obsess over Jimmy C's senior moment, what a handy distraction.