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Hugh Naylor

Foreign Correspondent

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bojack

The occupation has absolutely nothing to do with Palestinian/Arab hostility toward Israel. When the Arab states of Egypt, Syria and Jordan initiated a war of publically stated annihilation against Israel in 1967 (The Six Day War), there were no settlements and therefore no settlers in the West Bank or Gaza. What does this tell us? In 2000, Israeli PM Ehud Barak met with Yasser Arafat at Camp David, with Bill Clinton and Mideast advisor Dennis Ross presiding. PM Barak offered PA Chairman Arafat 92% of the West Bank with land exchanges for the remaing 8%, the entire Gaza, and an independent Palestinian state. Arafat neither responded nor offered a counterproposal. He simply packed his bags and went home. Clinton and Ross both reported this. In 2008 Israeli PM Ehud Olmert offered all of the above but sweetened the pot to 95% of the West Bank with land exchanges for the remaining few percent (Gaza had already beem surrendered). Palestinian PM Abbas turned it down without a serious counterproposal. In 1979 Egyptian President Anwar Sadat offered Israeli PM Manachem Begin a peace treaty for the return of the Sinai. When the Likud hawk saw a man whom he believed was sincere, he surrendered the entire Sinai Peinsula for a peace treaty. In 2008, the Likud uber hawk PM Ariel Sharon surrendered the entire Gaza, forcibly expelling the settlers from their homes, without getting anything in return. Woops, I made a mistake. He got 10,000 rockets fired at Israeli civilian centers in return. Israel has released thousands of Palestinian prisoners over the years as goodwill gestures to get peace talks started. Please tell me a solitary thing that the Palestinian side has done to promote peace. President Abbas has stated he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He refuses to try to tamp down the anti-Semitism in the Palestinian media and in the public school curriculum . He refuses to amend the genocide clause in the PLO Charter which to this day calls for the destruction of Israel.

Tim Upham

Ahmet Davutoglu should do the same thing that Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called for -- Hamas to recognize the State of Israel.