Muslim nations 'would recognise Israel' in peace deal

[Turborama]

Source: The Guardian

US is putting together sweeping package, says King Abdullah of Jordan, warning of war within 18 months if talks don't progress

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem

Jordan's King Abdullah has said the US is preparing an ambitious Middle East peace plan between Israel, the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon in return for diplomatic recognition of Israel from the world's Muslim nations.

Abdullah told the Times that on offer for Israel was a "57-state solution" in which the entire Arab and Muslim world would recognise its existence. "We are offering a third of the world to meet them with open arms," he said. "The future is not the Jordan river or the Golan Heights or the Sinai, the future is Morocco in the Atlantic and Indonesia in the Pacific. That is the prize."

If the peace agreement failed there could be another war in the Middle East by next year, Abdullah said in an interview with the newspaper.

"If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12 to 18 months," he was quoted as saying.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/11/jordan-abdullah-israel-palestinians-peace

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King Abdullah of Jordan's ultimatum: peace now or it’s war next year

Source: The Times

Richard Beeston and Michael Binyon in Amman

America is putting the final touches to a hugely ambitious peace plan for the Middle East, aimed at ending more than 60 years of conflict between Israel and the Arabs, according to Jordan’s King Abdullah, who is helping to bring the parties together.

The Obama Administration is pushing for a comprehensive peace agreement that would include settling Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians and its territorial disputes with Syria and Lebanon, King Abdullah II told The Times. Failure to reach agreement at this critical juncture would draw the world into a new Middle East war next year. “If we delay our peace negotiations, then there is going to be another conflict between Arabs or Muslims and Israel in the next 12-18 months,” the King said.

Details of the plan are likely to be thrashed out in a series of diplomatic moves this month. Chief among them is President Obama’s meeting with Binyamin Netanyahu, the right-wing Israeli Prime Minister, in Washington a week today. The initiative could form the centrepiece for Mr Obama’s much-anticipated address to the Muslim world in Cairo on June 4. A peace conference could then take place involving all the parties as early as July or August. Such an ambitious project has not been attempted since 1991, when George Bush senior’s Administration assembled all the parties for a peace conference in Madrid.

“What we are talking about is not Israelis and Palestinians sitting at the table, but Israelis sitting with Palestinians, Israelis sitting with Syrians, Israelis sitting with Lebanese,” said the King, who hatched the plan with Mr Obama in Washington last month. He added that, if Mr Obama did not make good his promise for peace, then his credibility would evaporate overnight.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article6262080.ece

[SkyDaddy7]

1. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

I hope this works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Happyhippychick]

2. If anybody can pull this off then I think Obama can. I am really hoping this works.

[No Elephants]

3. When King, Jr. was on MTP, Gregory ran a clip of the late King, Sr. saying the same

thing about 30 years ago. If we look really hard, we may be able to find a clip of David and Goliath having a similar discussion shortly before David grabbed his sling shot.

[Adelante]

4. In my lifetime

Please.

[ddss75]

5. I hope it works also

But I seriously doubt Netanyahu and his government would go for it. Every time Israel has made concessions to the Palestinians, they have gotten screwed. From Camp David to Annapolis the calls for peace have been nothing but desperate ploys to get money for the Palestinians so that their so called government could buy more rockets.

[tom_paine]

6. Any prominent Israeli who tried to embrace this or any other peace intiative would get what Rabin

got.

From a "lone wolf" RW gunman, of course.

They ALWAYS spring up just when the Bushies, be they American or Israeli, need them.

More complicated than that? I used to think so. But having my nose rubbed deeply in WHO REALLY RUNS THINGS, the 0.01% of the Global Aristocratic Elite through the world's intelligence services or something like that, I don't think it's much more complicated than that, at all.

Funny thing is, I think that, among the Global Aristocratic Elite, there IS religious and ethnic harmony.

Fighting each other over stupidity like religion and race is what they use on us to keep us from recognizing who the REAL enemy is. It always has worked. It always will work, apparently.

Anyway, my point was that Rabin's fate awaits any Israeli who wants to serve the Little People instead of the Global Aristocracy.

OK, maybe a small plane crash if it is felt that the Israelis are catching onto the "lone RW gunman" paradigm, but I think the "lone RW gunman" paradigm can successfully be used in still-naive Israel onceor twice more before the Bushie Mossad has to switch to the "small plane crash" method.

I know it sounds nuts to say these things. But what have the last 9 years showed us all, if not that the entire Earth is essentially run by wealthy sociopaths for wealthy sociopaths?

[Vidar]

7. Hoping it makes some progress.

[hugo_from_TN]

8. What about Hamas?

None of this will matter if Hamas keeps lobbing rockets into Israel.

[Turborama]

9. "Hamas says (it does) not oppose ceasefire deal with Israel"

Source: Xinhua

GAZA, May 11 (Xinhua) -- A senior Islamic Hamas movement leader in Gaza said on Monday that his movement does not oppose reaching a new long-term ceasefire agreement with Israel. "Hamas has no objections to reach a new Tahde'a (truce) with Israel, but this truce should not be on the expense of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights," said Salah el-Bardawil in a statement.

Since the end of a 22-day Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip on Jan. 18, Hamas armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades refrained from firing any medium or long-range rockets at Israel.

But other minor militant groups in Gaza continued launching homemade rockets at southern Israeli communities in the vicinity of the enclave. Israel held Hamas responsible for not reining in these attacks.

Meanwhile, Ayam Taha, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said he hopes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would discuss the renewal of the truce in his talks in Egypt in the day with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Read more: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-05/11/content_11354358.htm