Haniyeh sets conditions for temporary truce

[oberliner]

Palestinian Prime Minister says he will accept Palestinian state on '67 borders in exchange for 10 year truce

Associated Press Published: 01.20.07, 19:33

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Saturday that his Hamas-led government would be willing to accept a temporary Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in exchange for a 10-year truce with Israel .

His comments - consistent with a call for Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders - came as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet Hamas' supreme leader Khaled Mashaal in Syria to discuss ways to form a coalition government and end international sanctions on the Palestinians.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3354680,00.html

So what happens after the 10 year truce?

[Tom Joad]

1. Seems like a very reasonable offer.

If a long term truce can happen, people will not want to go back to fighting.

But Israel is unlikely to relinquish control of the West Bank, and really give up its control of Gaza, without outside pressure. It seems very determined to keep large portions of the West Bank.

The world community must stand for international law. Sanctions against Israel seem the only way to real peace.

[oberliner]

3. But doesn't a 10 year truce suggest further demands down the road?

Israel withdrawing completely from the West Bank and Gaza to the 1967 borders only warrants a temporary truce?

Shouldn't it result in the termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgement of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force?

[Tom Joad]

4. I think any final resolution must include the right of return

for refugees from the conflict. As per international law.

Israel will never agree to even the return of the land taken in 1967 , even if everything you mention were also promised. Not without outside pressure. I think that is coming. Here in the US, a massive protest is planned June 10th. www.endtheoccupation.org

Israel has always been the rejectionist of reasonable peace offers.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10872

[oberliner]

6. Right of return for refugees or for descendants of refugees?

International law generally applies only to the refugees themselves.

[Jim Sagle]

2. The usual treacherous and exteriminationist rubbish from the Palestinian side.

"Give us what we want and we'll let you live 10 more years." Try again.

[Amused Musings]

5. Hamas apparently does not understand

negotiations. This is what Hamas sounds like: "Give us everything we want, and we will wait 10 years to regroup and re-arm so we can renew our bloodthirsty attacks against your civilians in the name of our genocidal ideology."

Do not get me wrong. The only reason Israel is giving up on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is because they releazed, as a Western liberal democracy, they would have to give full rights to all those living in those territories. However, as long as Hamas' mission statement is the destruction of Israel and presumably all the Jews in there, their offer should be rejected. It is crazy that Hamas allows the Palestinians they represent to wallow in poverty and misery and hunger because they cannot accept the realityt that Israel exists and will continue to exist.