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Looking for New Obstacles to Peace

Israel is forever proclaiming that it seeks peace with its neighbours and the Palestinians, that it can't find a proper partner in any peace-negotiations, that the Palestinians are constantly breaching negotiated truces, etc, etc.

Any fair-minded and objective observer would readily conclude that Israel does not really seek peace - other than on its own terms. Witness, as an example, the expansion of the settlements in the West Bank - despite assurances that it wouldn't -the ongoing building of the Wall and the despicable and unconscionable blockade of Gaza.

Now, a new element to any peace-process has been introduced, as Jonathan Cook writes in "Jewish ‘Refugee’ Lobby Seeks to Eclipse Palestinian Losses" on Information Clearing House:

"A broad coalition of Jewish lobby groups has made a series of breakthroughs this year in its campaign to link the question of justice for millions of Palestinian refugees with justice for Jews who left Arab states in the wake of Israel’s establishment 60 years ago.

Referring to these Jews as the “forgotten refugees” and claiming that their plight is worse than that of exiled Palestinians, the campaign has scored political successes in recent months in Washington, London and Brussels.

Last week, the campaign received a major fillip when one of Israel’s largest political parties announced that restitution of property for Arab Jews was a central plank of its platform for the general election scheduled for February."

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