Mister, why don't you do something useful instead of bloviating: tell everyone who will listen that there are 3 Israeli soldiers kidnapped last summer by thugs. NOTHING will happen in terms of Israeli acceptance of any terms until those three are returned safely.

Sage - There are 10,000 Palestinian prisoners who will have to also be returned safely.

I would love to be optimistic.  Pessimism doesn't help all that much and realism seems to be something most "realists" claim for themselves as a "self-evident truth". 

I heard a bit on NPR which struck me as interesting, and I'd be more optimistic about it if both sides didn't seem to go out of their way to find fault with it.  I'm referring to the first appointment of the first Arab Minister in the Israeli Cabinet.  The link is to an article in Haaretz, which includes this interesting tidbit:

Israeli politics once again played a practical joke. Ironically, or cynically, Majadele has become the only Arab minister in Israel, thanks to the only Jewish minister who resigned from the government in protest against the inclusion of a party whose platform calls for the expulsion of Majadele, along with his home and his belongings, from Israel.

Good luck, good wishes and support to all of good will.

aMike

mjshep,

The U.S. is, for better or worse, the most powerful player in this drama exclusive of the contending parties.

At least until Europe finally realizes how strong it actually is.  The EU is Israel's leading trade partner, and has the overall trust of Palestinian leadership.

Zionista: although I found many of the items on Burton's list very sensilble, I was confused by these three:

...I believe that in a world in which there are dozens of Islamic countries, some of which cannot abide the corporeal presence of the Jew, there is room for one Jewish one.

I believe that in a world in which the flags of 13 nations bear a cross, the flag of one nation can bear a Star of David...

I believe that the process of dividing and sharing the Holy Land will be agonizing for both peoples. Both peoples have seen what civil war will be like, the Jews in Gaza in 2005, the Palestinians in Gaza in 2007.

Don't staunch Zionist American Jews, including yourself, generally try to convince us that Israel is a purely secular country, or near to it?

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. --Paul Valery

Soldiers go missing in wars. While the North Vietnamese certainly used POWs as a bargaining chip, eventually, the US made a correct decision to end a war with MIAs. Over time, and with growing friendship with Vietnam, they've made strides -- but the reality is we will never know what happened to a fair number of our people.

On a trauma and critical care mailing list, I often read the insightful comments of Israeli physicians. They recognize the hard rules of disaster medicine -- you can't save everyone when resources are limited.

To continue a war over three men is not, to me, anything other than fanaticism. It will contribute to decreasing support for Israel, along with the intransigent refusal even to hold settlement construction constant.

--
Howard

*equal opportunity offense to both extremes*

I have to admit to a growing amount of confidence in Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Ha'aretz, Dec. 27 2006:

The foreign minister hinted she had a diplomatic plan she was trying to promote, but declined to give details. "The vision is of the State of Israel as a national home for the Jewish people, which provides a solution for the problem of the Jewish refugees, and provides a national expression for each and every Jew, and alongside it a Palestinian state that is the national home of the Palestinian nation, which provides a full and complete solution for the problem of the Palestinian refugees," she said.

Her statements give the impression that she wants to "skip over" the first stage of the road map, which involves diplomatic progress in stopping terror. The road map, she said, "affirms that in the second stage, a state with temporary borders and symbols of sovereignty will be established. I think I can conduct talks with Abbas that will clarify what they want to achieve in the two-state vision," she added.

As to whether the present government is committed to dividing the land, even after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's convergence plan is off the agenda, Livni answered in the affirmative. The dividing line, according to Livni, is the separation fence, and the public will support the evacuation of tens of thousands of settlers who live beyond it. "The behavior of the Palestinians in Gaza after the disengagement creates a major problem. But I believe that, in the final analysis, if a reasonable solution is found for the security issues, most of the Israeli public will support this process," she said.

As to whether the establishment of a Palestinian state was a possible goal of this government, she said, "I don't like to set timetables...But I see a type of opportunity. On the one hand, we're surrounded by a growing threat and extremism and zealotry. On the other hand, precisely because of this threat, moderate countries and moderate factors in the region understand today that their problem is not Israel."

Yeah still think it kinda interesting that the "separation fence" wasn't:

"...built along the Green Line, the boundary between Israel and the West Bank before the 1967 war.

BBC: Israel barrier 'hurting farmers'

No doubt about it, Tzipi Livni is hands down the most fascinating Israeli politician to come to power in years. I have my hopes that she and her backers can somehow short circuit Bibi's drive to become PM again.

In addition to her impressive resume and connections, she is one tough customer and judging from her body language in photos of her interactions with Bush and Cheney, Tzipi is not intimidated. She is telling THEM what for.

Tzipi for PM!

Howard: The majority of the Wall has been constructed already, and whole Palestinian villages have been razed to make way for it. It further isolates many other villages, depending on what side of the Wall they happen to fall. Palestinian farmers have found themselves unable to tend their olive groves when they are separated from their villages by the Wall, and many groves have simply been uprooted by the Israelis.

Stop the Wall.org, an Israeli peace group, has extensive information and maps regarding the wall, here. B'tselem, another Israeli peace organization, also has some excellent background and analysis of the problems with the Wall, here and here. Wikipedia provides a good summary, here (note the extensive references for further reading). Peace Now, yet another Israeli peace organization, has some good information about the settlements and their impact on the Palestinians, here. And the 2005 Human Rights Watch letter to President Bush about the Wall, here, is a must-read for anyone trying to understand it's impact. Start with the HRW letter and the Stop the Wall maps if your time is limited - I know I've bombarded you with a surfeit of reading matter. If you have time, however, a browse around any of the sites I linked will provide additional information. The suffering that the Wall is causing is well documented, although little known here in the US.

I'm not clear on Rice's outlook on the Wall as it stands now (although Sen. Clinton, on a trip to Israel, said she is in support of it), but her position up to this point has seemed to focus on the ways the Palestinians have not met their Road Map obligations, while mostly ignoring the acceleration of settlement activity on the Israeli side, which is also in violation of basic Road Map responsibilties. Since the move to final status talks is somewhat of a surprise, it seems hard to predict what position Rice may take. My concern is that the unbalanced approach will continue, and the Palestinians will be portrayed as intransigent for not accepting the "facts on the ground" (in other words, the illegal settlements which the Israelis now seek to make part of Israel). It's been pretty well established that the route of the wall has been established not to actually increase Israeli security, but to take more land for Israel. Since the route of the Wall so isolates the remaining Palestinian lands into small non-contiguous bits, it would be impossible for the Palestinians to create a viable state if the Wall were to be the dividing line. Hence the concern...

Of course, it's also possible that Livni is starting out from that position primarily to establish her credentials as a tough negotiator, and will show some flexibility in the actual talks. But in the end, in order for peace to be achieved, both the Israelis and the Palestinians must feel at the end of negotiations that they have gotten a good deal - the best deal possible. A division based on the current route of the Wall is a very bad deal for the Palestinians.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. --Paul Valery