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A country without borders?

"Since the founding of the state of Israel, successive Israeli governments have done their best to ensure the question of a Palestinian state remains perpetually in limbo.

Commenting on Israel's disengagement from Gaza, former Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's spokesman Dov Weisglass said: "It supplies the amount of formaldehyde that's necessary so that there will not be a political process with the Palestinians."

At the recent Arab summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia revived the Arab Peace Initiative. It was described as "revolutionary" by Israel, yet it is already five years old and says what existing United Nations resolutions, the US, EU and rest of the world already advocate: land for peace.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert maintains that more negotiations are required before a final settlement can be agreed on. The negotiations he speaks of have been the "get out of jail free" card that every Israeli prime minister has used since negotiations began.

"Whenever Arabs come up with clear, frank and transparent decisions toward peace, (Israel) rejects them," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said. "This does not show a country that wants peace."

So begins a sober op-ed piece in The Sunday Age written by Moammar Mashni, a member of Australians for Palestine.

As Mashni points out:

"Israel is the only country on Earth without defined, fixed borders. Therefore, how can Israel demand Palestinians recognise Israel? It exists. One need only look at an atlas. A better question and one that begs to be asked is: When will Israel recognise Palestine?"

Comments

Anonymous said…
i think the question hamas has is this: they stole our land through violence, and the collusion of western nations intent on solving the jewish question for themselves. why should we not get our land back by whatever means we can?

until i hear this simple plea for natural justice answered, i believe israel has the same right to exist as the boer/apartheid regime of south africa. israel supported the racist regime to the bitter end, being more clear about the similarity than zionist appeasers.
April 08, 2007 11:32 am
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