Merlin, you wanted to know why Arafat rejected the "offer" at the "peace proces". Your post is below, and is followed by the responsive quotes form JEWS FOR JUSTICE IN THE MIDDLE EAST. If you are unable to descern the truths and postitions of the Palestinian side on this issue, then I suggest you remember this advice--It is better to remain silent and appear stupid, then to open your mouth and remove all doubt...
************************************************************let those who criticise israel answer these two questions?
(A) if israel is the oppressor of palestinians and wants to occupy palestinian land why did it offer the palestinians a state of their own in 1999 at camp david?
(B) they offered everything they could in 1999 including half of their capital Jerusalem as Bill Clinton testified. after the palestinains refused thier ultimatum and then started an intifada using suicide bombers and men firing from behind their stone throwing sons - what should Israel have done?
Let one Palestinians or anti-Israel supporter answer that reasonably (without mouthing off about the murder of billions of palestinian babies by the devil-in-human-form Ariel Sharon, please - just answer this question. You've spent the past two weeks giving vent to all the Anti Israel or plain Anti Semitic sentiment - now answer reasonably to two points.)
thanx,
Merlin
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What Arafat was offered
"In American coverage of the recent Camp David meetings, the American press obediently followed the Israeli and US government spin that while Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made courageous concessions for peace, Palestinian unwillingness to compromise caused the meeting to fail.
"Never mind that Barak's 'courageous concessions' consisted of allowing the Palestinians to have joint administrative responsibility over a couple of remote Arab neighborhoods of Arab East Jerusalem - pathetic crumbs tossed on the floor which Arafat was expected to gratefully pick up." American Jewish reporter, Eduardo Cohen, from "What Americans Need to Know - But Probably Won't Be Told - To understand Palestinian Rage" from Palestine Media Watch, www.pmwatch.org
According to President Clinton and most of the media, Prime Minister Ehud Barak conceded at Camp David virtually everything the Palestinians wanted, and Yasser Arafat threw away the opportunity for peace by rejecting Barak's offer. In fact Arafat could not accept it. Barak, backed by Clinton, wanted assurance of Israel's continued strategic control over the West Bank and Gaza, including air space and borders, and insisted that Israel retain permanent sovereignty over most of East Jerusalem, including Haram Al-Sharif. This was a deal no Arab would accept.
What Arafat was offered - continued
"Barak appears to be asking for only 10% of the occupied territories. In reality, it's closer to 30%, taking into account the territories he wants to annex in the Jerusalem area and place under his "security control" in the Jordan Valley. But even worse, in the map submitted to the Palestinians, these percentage points cut the country up from East to West and from North to South, so that the Palestinian state will consist of groups of islands, each surrounded by Israeli settlers and soldiers.
"World opinion is always on the side of the underdog. In this fight, we are Goliath and they are David. In the eyes of the world [outside the US], the Palestinians are fighting a war of liberation against a foreign occupation. We are in their territory, not they on ours. We are the occupiers, they are the victims. This is the objective situation, and no minister of propaganda can change that." Israeli peace activist. Uri Avnery, "12 Conventional Lies About the Palestine-Israeli Conflict" from Palestine Media Watch, www.pmwatch.org.
Barak promised peace and brought war, and not by accident."
"(Barak) promised peace and brought war, and not by accident. While speaking about peace, he enlarged the settlements. Cut the Palestinian territories into pieces by 'by-pass' roads. Confiscated lands. Demolished homes. Uprooted trees. Paralyzed the Palestinian economy..Conducted negotiations in which he tried to dictate to the Palestinians a peace that amounts to capitulation. Was not satisfied with the fact that by accepting the Green Line, the Palestinians had already given up 78% of their historic homeland. Demanded the annexation of 'settlement blocs" and pretended that they amount only to 3% of the territory, while in fact he meant more than 20% would remain under Israeli control. Wanted to coerce the Palestinians to accept a 'state' cut off from all its neighbors and composed of several enclaves isolated from each other, each surrounded by Israeli settlers and soldiers...Boasts publicly that he has not given back to the Palestinians one inch of territory...When the intifada broke out, sent snipers to shoot, in cold blood from a distance, hundreds of unarmed demonstrators, adults and children. Blockaded each village and town separately, bringing them to the verge of starvation, in order to get them to surrender. Bombarded neighborhoods. Started a policy of mafia-style 'liquidations', causing an inevitable escalation of the violence." Israeli peace activist, Uri Avnery, February 3, 2001, www.gush-shalom.org
A 'benign' occupation?
"Israelis like to believe, and tell the world, that they are running an 'enlightened' or 'benign' occupation, qualitatively different from other military occupations the world has seen. The truth was radically different. Like all occupations, Israel's was founded on brute force, repression and fear, collaboration and treachery, beatings and torture chambers, and daily intimidation, humiliation and manipulation." Israeli historian, Benny Morris, "Righteous Victims."
