The role of the Palestinian Authority in Israel’s election results

[Fozzledick]

Those around the world who are upset with Prime Minister’s Benjamin Netanyahu electoral victory over labor should put much of the responsibility for Israel’s rightward turn squarely where it belongs: on the Palestinian Authority.

At least twice over the last 15 years, Israel has offered the Palestinians extraordinarily generous two-state solutions. The first time was in 2000-2001 when Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton offered the Palestinians more than 90% of the West Bank and all of the Gaza, with a capital in Jerusalem. Yasser Arafat turned down the offer and started an intifada in which 4000 people were killed. This self-inflicted wound by the leader of the Palestinian Authority contributed greatly to the weakening of Israel’s peace camp, most particularly of Ehud Barak’s Labor Party. The current Zionist Party, which is an offshoot of Labor, has continued to suffer from that weakening.

Then again in 2007, Ehud Olmert offered the Palestinians an even more generous resolution, to which Mohammad Abbas failed to respond positively. This failure also contributed to the weakening of the Israeli center left and the strengthening of the right.

Israel is a vibrant democracy, in which people vote their experience, their fear and their hope. In 2000-2001 and 2007, most Israelis had high hopes for a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian conflict. These hopes were dashed by Arafat’s rejection and Abbas’ refusal to accept generous peace offers. It is not surprising therefore that so many Israelis now vote their fear instead of their hope.

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/The-role-of-the-Palestinian-Authority-in-Israels-election-results-394370

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

1. Bravo, Bravo.... But here's the truth.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/12/oslo-israel-reneged-colonial-palestine

It's now clear: the Oslo peace accords were wrecked by Netanyahu's bad faith

Sadly, the Jewish fanatic who assassinated Rabin in 1995 achieved his broader aim of derailing the peace train. In 1996 the rightwing Likud returned to power under the leadership of Binyamin Netanyahu. He made no effort to conceal his deep antagonism to Oslo, denouncing it as incompatible with Israel's right to security and with the historic right of the Jewish people to the whole land of Israel. And he spent his first three years as PM in a largely successful attempt to arrest, undermine, and subvert the accords concluded by his Labour predecessors.

Particularly destructive of the peace project was the policy of expanding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory. These settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a huge obstacle to peace. Building civilian settlements beyond the Green Line does not violate the letter of the Oslo accords but it most decidedly violates its spirit. As a result of settlement expansion the area available for a Palestinian state has been steadily shrinking to the point where a two-state solution is barely conceivable.

The so-called security barrier that Israel has been building on the West Bank since 2002 further encroaches on Palestinian land. Land-grabbing and peace-making do not go together: it is one or the other. Oslo is essentially a land-for-peace deal. By expanding settlements all Israeli governments, Labour as well as Likud, contributed massively to its breakdown.

The rate of settlement growth in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem is staggering. At the end of 1993 there were 115,700 Israeli settlers in the occupied territories. Their number doubled during the following decade.

But wait, there's more... Netanyahu himself claiming that he killed Oslo. Appearing on Israel's Channel Ten News.

"America is a thing that can be easily moved..." 1:19

"Becaus at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo Accord." 3:56



Thanks for the laugh, though, fozz. Netanyahu has stained Israel with his outright bigotry, and racist Israel has voted him back in for it.

http://972mag.com/the-next-time-netanyahu-talks-about-common-values/104511/

A few hours after the polls opened in Israeli elections on Tuesday, incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu published a message that offends the very spirit of democracy and equality.

Invoking military terminology, the prime minister warned that his own “right-wing regime” is in danger because “the Arabs are mobilizing in large numbers … to the polls.”

More...

Remember that Netanyahu’s version of democracy includes as few Arab voices as possible, simply because they are not Jewish.

Remember that the peace processes he has overseen for decades were not genuine, that he never had any intention of ushering in, let alone seeking, a two-state solution.

[Jefferson23]

2. Dershowitz should start writing for SNL, that is one hilarious OP. n/t

[geek tragedy]

4. I like how he blames Abbas for the failure of a proposal that a majority of the Knesset

said was DOA when it became public.

[Jefferson23]

7. Yes, and he has no shame left, all pretense has dissolved...the mark of a true hack and

tool for the apartheid state.

[geek tragedy]

8. after his "torture warrants" idea he should have been shamed from public life nt

[Jefferson23]

10. That should have been when Harvard showed him the door..but that's asking too

much of our Ivy League institution.

[geek tragedy]

11. well, tenure does protect most speech, even the reprehensible stuff

but is there a reason this guy is considered more credible than Sarah Palin?

[Jefferson23]

12. Free speech does not prevent Harvard from spelling out in a public manner how

ILLEGAL never mind morally and ethically repugnant his opinions are on torture.

They should have gone after the bullshit legal claims he made and mocked
him for it..the alleged great legal mind. That would have stung but true, he
was tenured. I can't stand that man.

[geek tragedy]

3. Nothing is Israel's fault, even its own racism and rightwing politics.

This is almost self-parody.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

6. But it's easier that way.

Everybody is either an anti-Semite, self-hater or Godwin-in-disguise.

Eretz Israel is pure.

Note the >>> <<< thingy?

[geek tragedy]

5. Plus . . . Thanks Obama!

The Obama administration also contributed to the election results in Israel by refusing to listen to Israeli concerns—concerns shared by Israelis of every political stripe—about the impending deal with Iran. Many Israelis have given up any hope of influencing the Obama administration to demand more from the Iranians. The current deal contains a sunset provision which all but guarantees that Iran will have nuclear weapons within a decade. Isaac Herzog made a serious mistake when he said he trusted President Obama to make a good deal with the Iranians. Few Israelis share that trust as do few members of Congress, and few Sunni Arab governments. That lack of trust was reflected in voting for a Prime Minister who has been more confrontational and less trusting.

Right wing agitprop from a major league douchebag.

[Jefferson23]

9. Shameless liar..the man honors nothing. n/t