Isn't that a sad statement on who the belligerent party here really is ... ?
Shaul Mofaz, a leading candidate to succeed Ehud Olmert as Israel's prime minister, will halt the current peace negotiations with the Palestinians if he gains top office, a close aide has said.
(At least this would be an honest statement of intentions, since the Annapolis meeting was no more than an elaborate PR event, a charade designed to create the illusion that Israel's ruling Extremists are interested in peace, as they increased attacks on Palestinians, turned Gaza into the world's largest Concentration Camp, and exploded the construction of illegal settlements.)
By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem
Last Updated: 7:33PM BST 12 Aug 2008
Such a move would spell the end of the already troubled latest stage in the Middle East peace process, launched with great fanfare last year in Annapolis by Mr Olmert and the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas under the supervision of President George W Bush.
(Just saying that out loud tells me how ludicrous this is. Orwell was a very, very smart man.)
Talks are currently underway on core issues including refugees (The Right of Return) and borders (Zionist Expansionism) in a bid to reach a permanent status agreement (Vastly more Palestinian concessions) that would create - at least on paper - a Palestinian state.
(But hardly a viable one, which is, of course, the plan ...)
But Mr Mofaz, a former army chief of staff, believes there is not enough trust between Israel and the Palestinians to reach a full resolution of the conflict, said Talya Somech, his spokesman.
"He believes that years and mutual confidence will be needed in order to reach these topics," said Miss Somekh.
(In other words, he will perpetuate Zionism's war for years to come, without even a glimmer of hope that it will come to an end, and Israelis and Palestinians can begin creating a better reality ...)
Mr Mofaz would seek a more modest "interim agreement", Miss Somech said, declining to specify details.
"He knows the price of war and wants peace but he believes you should not run to peace," she said. "If you run, then you will stumble."
(This is a ridiculous, rejectionist justification.)
The senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in response that Israel's withdrawing from the current negotiations would strengthen the militant Hamas movement and undermine moderates such as Mr Abbas.
"If you stop the permanent status negotiations, it is meaningless to continue talking," he said. "Stopping will just prove Hamas to be right, that we are not moving anywhere, that peace does not mean anything to the Israelis and that we are irrelevant."
(The past three years have already proven this.)
Mr Mofaz's main rival to lead the ruling Kadima party is the foreign minister Tzipi Livni, whose campaign is partly based on her credentials as the overseer of negotiations with Palestinians.
Last week she said that a permanent status agreement might still be reached this year, the original target of the Bush administration.
Should the winner of next month's Kadima leadership contest fail to form a new government (Let's all pray toggether ...!), early elections would ensue with hard-line Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu considered the likely winner.
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2545717/Israeli-can
ALERT: Annapolis a Charade: Israeli Extremists Plotting Massive Aggression
http://www.israel.indymedia.org/newswire/display/7906/index.php
Israel's Goals: Regime Change, Reoccupation
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/03/392988.html