Quartet Calls for Two-State Israel | Palestinian Solution in Two Years

HopeTracker| America’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dined with her Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Quartet Representative Tony Blair over a closed dinner on Thursday evening before Friday’s (today’s) formal meeting.

The group has since called for an immediate relaunch of peace negotiations in order to achieve a two-state solution within 24 months.

“The Quartet believes these negotiations should lead to a settlement, negotiated between the parties within 24 months, that ends the occupation that began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors,” said a joint statement read by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. via Haaretz

The group also called on Israel to freeze all settlement activities and denounced its recent decision to approve construction of new homes in East Jerusalem.

Secy Clinton spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu yesterday by telephone. 

In a separate article in Haaretz, Netanyahu thought he could take Obama, and lost, writer Anshel Pfeffer makes the point — cited often this past week — that President Obama is the first American president in 40 years to actually say ‘no’ to further expansion in East Jerusalem.

Other American presidents have disapproved, but none have actually said ‘no’, forcing the diplomatic issue. This action leads some to accuse President Obama of being anti-Semetic, but we believe he has run out of patience, as have we at Anne of Carversville.

Israelis are reluctant to put the Palestinian conflict within the larger platform of global conflicts facing the US. Insulating the problem, they disavow any kind of ripple effect for America.

Looking at the costs of war in the Middle East and terrorism spawned by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — based on what nations say and how they behave — we feel differently and strongly agree with General Patraeus that this conflict undermines the American military and America’s economy.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has become mental masturbation, in terms of any peace efforts. This is why we seek to put women in charge of the solution. The right-wingers in Israel will never go pecefully into the night. The Christians in Jerusalem, funded by funadmantalists in the US, will also not go peacefully into a collaborative sharing of Jerusalem.

Haaretz notes that with Passover coming, most Israelis focused on the beginning of Passover on March 29.

This is a fight for God by a group not accustomed to sharing or coexisting. The Middle East is an endless fight over religion, one that threatens to destroy the world.

We refuse to believe that the real God (or Goddess) approves of men’s actions in the Middle East. And I will not support wars for principles in which the winners refuse to shake my hand or disallow me to pray with them at the very religious sites they claim as belonging to men but not women.  Anne