How the Donkey Got in Trouble?

Israeli and Palestinian capitals could be set up in Jerusalem - officials

4 October 2007

Washington: Five former State Department and Pentagon officials are proposing Israeli and Palestinian capitals in occupied Jerusalem and excluding Arab refugees from returning to Israel as part of an Middle East accord.

In a six-page policy statement submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, they also suggested a series of peace conferences following the one she hopes to convene next month, probably in Maryland. Hamas has not met US terms for attending. Those conditions are recognising Israel's right to exist and abandoning violence against the Jewish state.

But the ex-officials suggested Hamas might be drawn to attend a second conference, which implicitly would accept the first one and Israel's existence. Jerusalem's future and that of Palestinian refugees have snarled past US peace efforts. Former President Bill Clinton's mediation efforts between the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak envisioned the sharing of Jerusalem. Clinton ruled out requiring Israel to take in most Palestinians or their families who claimed to have been forced out of Israel during creation of the Jewish state in 1947-8.

It will be very difficult, "but not impossible," said Robert Pelletreau, a former US ambassador to Egypt and ex-assistant secretary of state for the region.

Along with the announcement of the conference, he said, "you have several things that can reinforce each other if they are framed properly. The refugee issue is the most difficult."

Commentary:

by HRM Deborah

“Jerusalem's future and that of Palestinian refugees have snarled past US peace efforts.”

This is interesting because the Zionist made the refugees and them along with the United States thinks they have no place.

Wonder, how they would feel if circumstances were reversed?

I guess other people could call them the millions that are supposed to be silent.

Alternatively, another thought, maybe Israel should stop immigration from there side calling them Diaspora Jews and allowing them to speak in the open forum. May very well put AIPEC, out of business?