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I would like to PERSONALLY thank Mahmoud Abbas.
Why?
When the other party at a negotiating table makes insane, irrational, impossible demands, you can refuse to negotiate with them in absolutley good conscience.
Thank you Mahmoud Abbas, for giving Israel the chance to say "#### off!"
Not that they will, unfortunatley :/
Why?
When the other party at a negotiating table makes insane, irrational, impossible demands, you can refuse to negotiate with them in absolutley good conscience.
Thank you Mahmoud Abbas, for giving Israel the chance to say "#### off!"
Not that they will, unfortunatley :/
Palestinians Want Western Wall as Part of Any Settlement
By BENNY AVNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 12, 2007
UNITED NATIONS — As an American-hosted Middle East summit approaches, Palestinian Arabs are hardening their positions: An aide to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that the Palestinians will demand sole Arab control over Judaism's holiest site in Jerusalem, the Western Wall.
Mr. Abbas's adviser on religious affairs, Adnan al-Husseini, made the new demand in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, sparking an outcry from many Israeli politicians who complained that recent reports about the Olmert government's proposal to transfer Arab-dominated neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state have led to further Arab demands.
As the last remnant of the ancient Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 of the common era, the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, is considered Judaism's holiest site. Muslims, who call it Al-Burak, also venerate it as the place where they believe the prophet Muhammad tied his horse before ascending to the heavens.
"We are talking about full control" over Jerusalem, Mr. Husseini, a scion of one of the most prominent Palestinian Arab families, told Ma'ariv. "The Wailing Wall," he said, "is a Muslim waqf," or sacred endowment, "and therefore cannot be abandoned." He cited a 1928 British mandate white paper that called for the area to be under Muslim control where Jews would be allowed to worship.
Mr. Husseini's demand "is a direct result of the unilateral appeasement policies of the Olmert-Barak government," according to a statement released by the right-of-center Likud Party, referring respectively to the prime minister of the centrist Kadima Party, and the left-of-center Labor Party leader, Ehud Barak, who is the defense minister. These policies, the statement said, would "abandon Jerusalem to the threats of Hamas."
Some Laborites were also angry. "The Wall is a remnant of our Temple, the holiest place for Jews," Labor's Knesset member Danny Yatom told Ma'ariv. He said the November 26 summit in Annapolis, Md., is bound to fail if the Palestinian Arabs raise such extreme ideas.
On Tuesday, Mr. Abbas for the first time made public his vision on the size of the future Palestinian Arab state, saying Israel would have to withdraw from all of the territories it has held since the 1967 war with Jordan, which at the time controlled the West Bank and Egypt, which held the Gaza Strip.
In addition, Mr. Abbas said Israel would have to cede areas near the West Bank that until 1967 were considered no-man's-land. Small Jewish settlement clusters in the West Bank may remain, he said, but would have to be offset by equivalent Arab areas on the Israeli side of the pre-1967 border. There are 2,400 square miles in the West Bank and Gaza, Mr. Abbas told Palestinian television, "and we want it all."
In Israel, meanwhile, the mystery surrounding disruptions in services for customers of the nation's sole satellite television provider, the YES network, deepened yesterday, as the United Nations said it would investigate whether ships used by its force in Lebanon are involved. After a month of static and fuzzy pictures, some YES customers filed a $30 million, class-action lawsuit against the provider, which asked the government for help.
According to reports in Israel, the satellite interference might have resulted from signals beamed by the Syrians, the Russians, or from increased radar activity by naval forces in the Mediterranean. Mr. Barak asked the Dutch defense minister, Eimert van Middelkoop, to help in the matter, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Netherlands and Germany sent ships to patrol along the Lebanese shore as part of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.
By BENNY AVNI
Staff Reporter of the Sun
October 12, 2007
UNITED NATIONS — As an American-hosted Middle East summit approaches, Palestinian Arabs are hardening their positions: An aide to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that the Palestinians will demand sole Arab control over Judaism's holiest site in Jerusalem, the Western Wall.
Mr. Abbas's adviser on religious affairs, Adnan al-Husseini, made the new demand in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv, sparking an outcry from many Israeli politicians who complained that recent reports about the Olmert government's proposal to transfer Arab-dominated neighborhoods in Jerusalem to the jurisdiction of a Palestinian state have led to further Arab demands.
As the last remnant of the ancient Second Temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 of the common era, the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall, is considered Judaism's holiest site. Muslims, who call it Al-Burak, also venerate it as the place where they believe the prophet Muhammad tied his horse before ascending to the heavens.
"We are talking about full control" over Jerusalem, Mr. Husseini, a scion of one of the most prominent Palestinian Arab families, told Ma'ariv. "The Wailing Wall," he said, "is a Muslim waqf," or sacred endowment, "and therefore cannot be abandoned." He cited a 1928 British mandate white paper that called for the area to be under Muslim control where Jews would be allowed to worship.
Mr. Husseini's demand "is a direct result of the unilateral appeasement policies of the Olmert-Barak government," according to a statement released by the right-of-center Likud Party, referring respectively to the prime minister of the centrist Kadima Party, and the left-of-center Labor Party leader, Ehud Barak, who is the defense minister. These policies, the statement said, would "abandon Jerusalem to the threats of Hamas."
Some Laborites were also angry. "The Wall is a remnant of our Temple, the holiest place for Jews," Labor's Knesset member Danny Yatom told Ma'ariv. He said the November 26 summit in Annapolis, Md., is bound to fail if the Palestinian Arabs raise such extreme ideas.
On Tuesday, Mr. Abbas for the first time made public his vision on the size of the future Palestinian Arab state, saying Israel would have to withdraw from all of the territories it has held since the 1967 war with Jordan, which at the time controlled the West Bank and Egypt, which held the Gaza Strip.
In addition, Mr. Abbas said Israel would have to cede areas near the West Bank that until 1967 were considered no-man's-land. Small Jewish settlement clusters in the West Bank may remain, he said, but would have to be offset by equivalent Arab areas on the Israeli side of the pre-1967 border. There are 2,400 square miles in the West Bank and Gaza, Mr. Abbas told Palestinian television, "and we want it all."
In Israel, meanwhile, the mystery surrounding disruptions in services for customers of the nation's sole satellite television provider, the YES network, deepened yesterday, as the United Nations said it would investigate whether ships used by its force in Lebanon are involved. After a month of static and fuzzy pictures, some YES customers filed a $30 million, class-action lawsuit against the provider, which asked the government for help.
According to reports in Israel, the satellite interference might have resulted from signals beamed by the Syrians, the Russians, or from increased radar activity by naval forces in the Mediterranean. Mr. Barak asked the Dutch defense minister, Eimert van Middelkoop, to help in the matter, according to the Jerusalem Post. The Netherlands and Germany sent ships to patrol along the Lebanese shore as part of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.
It's a start.
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