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Politics : FREE AMERICA -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5636)	5/9/2006 1:36:47 PM
From: Oral Roberts	Respond to of 14758

I am trying to decide if I care about their pain. Try as I might I can not.

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5636)	5/9/2006 1:50:13 PM
From: goldworldnet	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14758

It’s about time the Palestinians learned a great truth in life. You can’t spit in someone’s face and expect them to give you money. * * *

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (5636)	5/10/2006 12:21:49 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 14758

Israel Gives Palestinians Deal Deadline By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer news.yahoo.com Israel on Wednesday gave the Palestinians until the end of the year to prove they are willing to negotiate a final peace deal, or prepare for the Israeli government to unilaterally set final borders by 2008. Meanwhile, the Israeli company that is the sole provider of fuel to the West Bank and Gaza Strip has halted deliveries because of growing debt, and Palestinian officials have warned that supplies would run out by Thursday. "If this happens, there will be a humanitarian crisis," the head of the Palestinian Petrol Commission, Mujahid Salame, said. In presenting the Israeli timetable for a West Bank pullout, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel would keep open the possibility of negotiations until the end of this year. "Through the end of this year, 2006, there will be honest attempts to talk to the other side," Ramon, a close associated of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said. "If it becomes clear by the end of the year that we really have no partner, and the international community is also convinced of this, then we will take our fate into our own hands and not leave our fate in the hands of our enemies," he told Israel's Army radio. Ramon was the first Israeli official to set a deadline for the Palestinians' militant Hamas government to renounce violence and recognize the Jewish state. Moderate Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, of the rival Fatah party, has tried to persuade Israel to bypass Hamas and talk peace with him, but Olmert has said he wouldn't negotiate with Abbas if the group didn't change its violent ways. Hamas accused Israel of only pretending to seek negotiations. Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who is close to Abbas, said talks could resume immediately under Abbas' leadership, without waiting for a change in Hamas' positions. The head of the Palestinian petrol commission, Mujahid Salame said Abbas was in touch with American and European diplomats in hopes of pressuring Israel to ensure the flow of fuel to the Palestinian areas after the cutoff. Salame said the Palestinians owe about $26 million to Dor, but he accused the company of taking a political decision aimed at punishing the Hamas-led Palestinian government. Asaf Shariv, a top Olmert aide, said Israel would not pay the debt with tax revenues it collects for the Palestinian Authority, but has been holding in escrow since the Hamas-dominated parliament was sworn in three months ago. Olmert, who was a major force behind Israel's Gaza Strip withdrawal last year, has said he intends to pull Jewish settlers out of heavily populated Palestinian areas in the West Bank while fortifying major settlement blocs and retaining the West Bank's Jordan River Valley. He has said Israel prefers to negotiate, but would act on its own if Hamas didn't moderate. Olmert never gave the Palestinians a deadline to head for the negotiating table, but has made it clear his patience was limited. "If we wait a month, two months, three months, half a year and we don't see any change, then most likely we are going to move forward even without an agreement, without negotiations, in order to define the border lines which are acceptable for Israel," he told an international conference of mayors on Tuesday. Olmert originally had set a 2010 deadline for the pullback, but a top aide said last month that Israel planned to conclude the process before the end of President Bush's term in 2008. Ramon said it wouldn't take more than 18 to 24 months. "I would like to believe that by the end of 2008 we will be deployed on a line that will signify Israel's final borders and guarantee our existence here as a Jewish democratic state," he said. The borders, he said, "will first and foremost include the settlement blocs and the regions that are necessary for our security." Hamas — which hasn't softened its anti-Israel stance even though it has provoked devastating Western and Israeli cash cutoffs — accused Israel of posturing on talks. "Haim Ramon's assertion that Israel is ready for negotiations is no more than an attempt to trick the public," Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said. "They don't want negotiations, and even if there were negotiations, they would not give us our rights." He repeated that Hamas was prepared to grant a long-term truce if Israel would agree to retreat to the lines it held before the 1967 Mideast war — a condition Israel categorically rejects. * * *