The Palestinian Prime Minister in Gaza has called the decision of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee to resume negotiations with Israel an "encouragement" for the Zionist state to escalate its settlement programme in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. During the official opening of the "The Road to Jerusalem" project opposite the government building in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh told reporters, "The decision of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee and the Palestinian Authority to resume any form of negotiations with the Israeli government is wrong because it has encouraged the Israelis to expand the settlement programme." The Arabs and Palestinians should learn from past experience, he added, and not rush to negotiate with Israel.
According to Mr. Haniyeh, Israeli actions in Jerusalem cannot be recognized because they are "illegal". Although Israel claims all of Jerusalem as its "undivided" capital, most of the world regards East Jerusalem as illegally occupied territory. "Despite Israel's aggressive attacks on our land and religious sites in Jerusalem," he said, "the Palestinians won't abandon the holy city."
Israel's Committee for Planning and Building, part of the Ministry of the Interior, has announced the ratification of 1600 new housing units in the Ramat Shlomo settlement in north Jerusalem. The announcement coincided with the visit of the US Vice President, Joe Biden, to Israel and the West Bank to put both sides on track for the resumption of negotiations after a lull of fifteen months.
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Arab countries had made probably the greatest mistake in their history when they had allied themselves with the USA decades ago. Naively, their probably believed that the USA would be only interested in their oil and leave them in peace. But the Americans knew from the very beginning that they can manipulate bad educated and gullible Arab leaders and sell them their weapons, cars and other commodities.
I was watching today the interview on Al Jazeera with Joe Biden and I have got the impression that the man is mentally deranged, a liar, a manipulator or a racist who sees Palestinians and Arabs as idiots. Instead of criticizing Israel which has practically stolen Palestinian land and breached dozens of UN resolutions he started to threaten Iran!
If Arab and Palestinian leaders were intelligent they would never have any discussions with Israel before certain conditions were fulfilled. And one of them is the withdrawal of Israel to the borders before 1967. Both Americans and Isreali understand that Mr. Abbas is a weak leader whom they can manipulate as a puppet. The absurd is that he is talking to his biggest enemies and ignores his brothers in Gaza. What a disgrace!
Both Americans and Israeli must laugh every time when they meet Arab leaders. They can use them instead of cuddly toys.
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