Does Jordan Want Palestinians In Control of The Border?

Khaled Abu Toameh

The last thing the Jordanians want to see is hundreds of thousands of Palestinians move from the West Bank or Gaza Strip into the kingdom. Understandably, the Jordanian monarch cannot go public with this stance for fear of being accused by Arabs and Muslims of treason and collaboration with the "Zionist enemy."

Palestinian Authority Pesident Mahmoud Abbas says that the Palestinians will not accept any Israeli presence along the border between a future Palestinian state and Jordan.

But the question is whether Jordan really wants to have Palestinians on its borders.

In private off-the-record meetings, top Jordanian officials make it crystal clear that they prefer to see Israel sitting along their shared border.

Speaking at a university graduation ceremony in Jericho, Abbas stated that the borders of the Palestinian state would stretch from the Dead Sea in the south and through the Jordan Valley all the way up to the town of Bet She'an in the north.
"This is a Palestinian-Jordanian border and that is how it will remain," Abbas said. "The responsibility for security along the border will be in the hands of the Palestinians."

Two Hundred Million Europeans See Israel as Nazi State

Giulio Meotti

 

Political Islam is the latest totalitarian ideology chosen by Europe to move towards liquidating the Jewish people - and it is working.

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

The fundamental Zionist idea about anti-Semitism was that once a Jewish State was realized, the problem of anti-Semitism in Paris, Berlin and Rome would be solved. Since Jews would have their own homeland, they could no longer be persecuted as religious and national strangers. But this neat packet of reasoning has turned out to be incorrect.

The Daily TIP: Analysts question Rouhani interview claims on nukes, empowerment‏

• The Israel Project
   
  Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC yesterday that Tehran has "never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb" and declared that that he has been given "complete authority" by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to negotiate a nuclear deal with the West. Some analysts expressed skepticism regarding these claims. The Washington Post's Max Fisher, who described a large swath of the interview as "great," noted that Rouhani's claims about Iran's nuclear aspirations "strains credulity a bit." The recent August 2013 report on Iran from the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog documented sustained progress that Iran is making toward both uranium- and plutonium-based bombs, and emphasized that the regime is quite literally paving over evidence that it had conducted work relevant to weaponization. Evaluating the report, the U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) estimated that [PDF] Iran is on track to achieve “critical capacity” – the ability to dash across the nuclear finish line before Western powers can detect and intervene – by mid-2014. As for the latter claim about Khamenei's buy-in, Reuters noted tersely that "questions remain about how much bargaining room Khamenei, a staunch promoter of Iran's nuclear program, will give his negotiators." Khamenei had, during the election, explicitly forbidden the eventual winner from making concessions to the West, though in recent days had spoken about "flexibility."

Attacks on Christians Escalate in Egypt, Nigeria

Raymond Ibrahim

"Teachers who teach western education? We will kill them! We will kill them in front of their students, and tell the students to henceforth study the Quran." — Abubakar Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, which has slaughtered Christian teachers and students, but has not been designated a terrorist group.

On July 4^th, the day after the Egyptian military liberated its nation from Muslim Brotherhood rule, Christian Copts were immediately scapegoated and targeted. All Islamist leaders—from Brotherhood supreme leader Muhammad Badi, to Egyptian-born al-Qaeda leader Ayman Zawahiri, to top Sunni cleric Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi—made a point to single out Egypt's Copts as especially instrumental in the ousting of former Islamist president Morsi, a claim that ushered in a month of slaughter against the nation's Christian minority.

E-Notes · September 2013 Beware Syrians Bearing Gifts

Gary C. Gambill

September 2013

 

It should come as no surprise that Syrian President Bashar Assad is adding new conditions to his government's recent pledge to relinquish control of its chemical weapons (CW) to international monitors, now that the immediate threat of U.S. air strikes has receded.  Assad's CW arsenal is absolutely critical to his regime's survival – he won't give it up unless and until he can dupe the West into helping him achieve this end (if then).

The Syrian regime cannot hope to win the war through conventional warfare. The country’s disenfranchised Sunni Arab majority has a fivefold demographic advantage over Assad's quasi-Shiite Alawite sect, which dominates pro-regime forces.  Moreover, Syria is surrounded by hostile Sunni states and Assad lacks the manpower to plug its porous borders.

Comment posted, damage done: Online battle for Israel's hasbara

Internet pages are fighting ring where Israel supporters try to ward off millions of pro-Palestinian posters. In hectic, viral world of talkbacks, every photo is replied, every reply is commented on, every comment has minute-long shelf life before it is challenged by rivals
 
Eyal Lehmann

On July 11, the Middle East made headlines in Italy again. Not one missile fell in Israeli territory, nor was a terrorist killed in Gaza. Still, for 24 hours, one feature did not escape the headlines on the La Repubblica website, one of the two most popular news sources in the country: "Israeli soldiers," the website reported with a video, "arrested a five-year-old Palestinian boy in the West Bank for throwing rocks." The IDF maintained that the boy was merely detained and then released back to his parents, but many Italian surfers saw enough to unholster.

Iran will never stop uranium enrichment: Lawmaker

Press TV

File photo shows an Iranian technician at Natanz enrichment facility.

Tue Sep 17, 2013 5:19PM

A senior Iranian lawmaker has ruled out the possibility of any cessation in Iran’s uranium enrichment activities, saying the measure is the country’s inalienable right.

“What is necessary for the Islamic Republic is that enrichment, as an undeniable national right, will be never stopped,” Chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Tuesday.

The Iranian lawmaker pointed to the West’s unilateral embargoes against Iran over its nuclear energy program and noted, “The sanctions were imposed illegally and under the US pressure. Therefore, the precondition for confidence-building is the lifting of sanctions.”

He argued that since Iran’s enrichment right has been recognized under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), “whatever the West has done so far is illegal.”

Israeli Rocket Attack Victims Win Major NY Court Decision Against the Bank of China in Terror Financing Case

(New York)  The families of  twenty Israeli terror victims have won a
monumental decision in  the New York State Appellate Division (1st Dept.) in
their case against the Bank of China (BOC). The Appellate Court affirmed
that the civil action brought in 2008 by the Israeli victims of  Palestinian
rocket attacks and suicide bombings can proceed against the BOC in the
United States.

Iran reduced its stock of 20 percent-enriched uranium ???‏

If you believed that Iran would work against its interests, I have several bridges to sell you at “deep cut”, and “significantly reduced” rates.  Trust ISIS, not Iran.  Don

Analysts from the U.S.-based Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) are pushing back against statements made last week by Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, to the effect that Iran has reduced its stock of 20 percent-enriched uranium from 240 kilograms to 140 kg by converting it into fuel. 

Why is the New York Times Always Wrong on Israel?

Michael Curtis

The New York Times is at it again in its continuing presentation of inaccurate statements and misleading assertions concerning the State of Israel. First was the headline in an article of September 10, 2013 that "The 1967 border is a source of strain in the Israeli-Palestinian Talks." Then on September 15 it published an unusually tendentious article, "Two-State Illusion: the idea of a state for Palestinians and one for Israelis is a fantasy that blinds us and impedes progress." 

The first statement was false since there are no borders; the second was an absurd argument that has no relevance to the present situation. Both are implicitly critical of Israel and unhelpful to any genuine effort to reach a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians in particular and the Arab world in general. Both are grounded in a pessimistic view of relationships between the parties in the Middle East. And both ignore the fact that pessimism is not an option for solution of political problems. 

IDF to stop securing border communities

Residents of Gaza vicinity area outraged after army announces it will cease providing security for 22 towns in northern Israel, near Sinai and Gaza border; West Bank settlements won't be affected 
 
Ynet reporters 

 
Residents of Gaza vicinity area outraged after army announces it will cease providing security for 22 towns in northern Israel, near Sinai and Gaza border; West Bank settlements won't be affected

Ynet reporters

Published:  09.17.13/ Israel News

The IDF will stop securing communities adjacent to the northern and southern borders, the IDF's Operations Branch has decided. A total of 22 towns situated near the Lebanese border, Sinai and the Gaza Strip will no longer enjoy army security. West Bank settlements were not included in the decision, which prompted anger in the Gaza vicinity area.

Security in the border areas is estimated at tens of millions of shekels, however a high-ranking officer said the decision was based solely on operational considerations.

The Devil That Never Dies

The Rise and Threat of Global Antisemitism

By Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Synopsis

A groundbreaking--and terrifying--examination of the widespread resurgence of antisemitism in the 21^st century, by the prize-winning and #1 internationally bestselling author of Hitler's Willing Executioners.

Antisemitism never went away, but since the turn of the century it has multiplied beyond what anyone would have predicted. It is openly spread by intellectuals, politicians and religious leaders in Europe, Asia, the Arab world, America and Africa and supported by hundreds of millions more. Indeed, today antisemitism is stronger than any time since the Holocaust.

Arabs Try to Burn Jerusalem Family Alive

Yom Kippur no respite from attacks for Jerusalem family as rioters target young children with firebombs.

By Arutz Sheva

First Publish: 9/17/2013, 1:15 AM

The Fairman family's demolished sukkah

Courtesy of the Fairman family

 

Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, nearly ended in tragedy for the Fairman family of Jerusalem. In the middle of the night, the family was targeted with firebombs in an attack that destroyed many of their children’s possessions, and nearly burned down the entire house.

The Fairman family lives in a predominantly Arab area of the mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood of Abu Tor in Jerusalem. While life is quiet just a five minute walk away, the Fairmans and the other Jewish families in their building have grown used to frequent attacks.

Bat-Ami Fairman was in the house with her two young sisters, ages 7 and 9, and her baby.

“The children had already gone to sleep. We were in our rooms when suddenly we heard that they were throwing rocks and metal at us from outside,” she told Arutz Sheva.

“We’re already used to it, so we didn’t get up,” she continued. “But when we heard a bottle explode, we realized we needed to run.”

Palestinian Rioters Attack IDF Forces During Terrorist Arrest in Jenin

Israel Defense Forces
 

Shots were fired at IDF soldiers during a violent riot which erupted earlier this morning (Tuesday) during an overnight activity to arrest a wanted terrorist in Jenin. During the riot, Palestinians hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and improvised grenades at security forces who responded with riot dispersal means. Once rioters began shooting at the forces, upon feeling an imminent threat to their lives, the soldiers returned fire towards the lower extremities of the main instigators. A direct hit was confirmed and an individual was lightly injured and evacuated for further treatment in an Israeli hospital.

Coalition MKs plead with Netanyahu not to give land to PA

Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom: "No one believes a permanent agreement can be reached in nine months" • Legal experts urge U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to make the Palestinians stop behavior detrimental behavior to peace talks.

Mati Tuchfeld, Gideon Allon, and Edna Adato

No one believes permanent peace can be made in in months, Energy and Water Resources Minister Silvan Shalom. | Photo credit: Yossi Zelliger

A group of 16 coalition MKs, many from the Likud, on Sunday pleaded with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to give up territory to the Palestinians. In a letter sent to the prime minister during his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the MKs called on Netanyahu "not to return to the Oslo Accord template or cede any more parts of the homeland to the Palestinian Authority."

The letter was drafted by Coalition Chairman MK Yariv Levin (Likud-Beytenu) and MK Orit Struck (Habayit Hayehudi), and was signed by deputy ministers Zeev Elkin, Tzipi Hotovely, Ofir Akunis, Eli Ben-Dahan and Avraham Wortzman.

"I will remain coalition chairman so long as we go down the right path of construction and settling throughout all of Israel," Levin said.

Jews Cannot Coexist with Arabs

Giulio Meotti

 

Two narratives are at war on the same, slim and holy piece of land. Forget about coexistence.

Giulio Meotti

The writer, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio, writes a twice-weekly column for Arutz Sheva. He is the author of the book "A New Shoah", that researched the personal stories of Israel's terror victims, published by Encounter. His writing has appeared in publications, such as the Wall Street Journal, Frontpage and Commentary. He is at work on a book about the Vatican and Israel.

Israel’s problems stem from a guilt complex. The Jewish people are, I believe, the chosen people, but are subjected to brainwashing by a small group of guilt-ridden personalities, including most of the politicians and almost all of the news media which try relentlessly to portray the Jews as a Goliath and the Arabs as a pitiful David.

While Fatah and the PLO have not yet got to the point Adolf Hitler reached in using the Jews as partners in their own destruction, the Arabs have been incredibly successful in cultivating cooperative Jewish groups, both in Israel and in the Diaspora.

 

That is the meaning of the new “peace talks”. A Palestinian state, they contend, is a moral imperative, a necessity and the only “solution” to the conflict. But peace treaties are temporary, not eternal. Only culture counts. And the Arabs, based on their religious and cultural perceptions, cannot sign a deal that would turn an Islamic state into a Jewish one. They can't give up Haifa and Jaffa!

Little by little, their propaganda had its effect. People, expecially in Europe, began to believe that Jews really shouldn’t be in Israel. They believe that there is a Jewish conspiracy to whitewash Israel.

Revisiting the Diana West Controversy

The ongoing implosion of the conservative ethos. 
by
David Solway

September 16, 2013 - 12:01 am


The controversy currently raging among conservative luminaries over the substantive nature and scholarly status of Diana West’s new book, American Betrayal, need not be rehearsed in detail here; its features are by now reasonably familiar to most readers of the political sites. But it will do no harm to offer a schematic overview of the broad contours of the “debate”—to give it the politest of tags.
It began when David Horowitz at FrontPage Magazine scrubbed Mark Tapson’s favorable account of the book and replaced it with Ron Radosh’s intemperate and distressingly ad hominem demolition masking as a “review.” Indeed, Radosh’s logomachic intervention read more like a personal vendetta than a scrupulous assessment. As a seasoned writer and veteran debater, Radosh should have known better. From that point on, a war of words was launched and the psychodrama shows no signs of tapering off. West published her Rebuttal and was heatedly defended by the notable historian Andrew Bostom and by many of the talkbackers to Horowitz’s own site. Meanwhile Horowitz and Radosh, and even the orotund Conrad Black, continued to pummel both book and author.

Shiites: Syria War Will Ignite End Times

Ryan Mauro

A Lebanese reporter for the Al-Monitor Middle East news service explains that Iran and Hezbollah view the Syrian civil war not only in a strategic context, but in a prophetic one. In their belief, the radical Sunnis will conquer Syria for a short period of time and then Iranian forces will intervene on their way to destroying Israel.

 
The unnamed reporter points out that Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is, like Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, “known for being a strong believer” in the Shiite prophecy that Iran will lead an End Times war against Islam’s enemies. At that time, the Mahdi will “reappear” and defeat the infidel.

According to the author, Iran and Hezbollah rely upon a book of prophecies called Al-Jafr to guide them. It was passed down to Jafar al-Sadiq, for whom the Jafari school of Shiite jurisprudence is named after. Teachers of this book say that the Syrian leader will be killed in a civil war during the End Times.

Jew Hatred Officially Backed by Belgium

Peter Martino

Belgian children aged 6 to 12 are being instilled with a hatred for Jews that is so deep, that one day "Never Again" might indeed become "Over Again," and with the same victims as before: the Jews.

Shockingly, in Belgium, history lessons about Nazism and the Holocaust are currently being used to infuse children with hatred against Israel.

The Belgian Ministry of Education funds an organization, the Special Committee for Remembrance Education (BCH), which provides teachers with ready-made templates for their history lessons. In its September issue, Joods Actueel, the largest Jewish magazine in Belgium, describes this educational material as "perverted." The so-called Remembrance Education, the magazine writes, "has degenerated into an instrument to infect youngsters with hatred of Israel and anti-Semitism."

One of the materials used is the cartoon "Never Again, Over Again." It equates the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis today with the treatment of the Jews by the Nazis in the 1930s and 40s.

"Never Again means that what happened under Hitler should never happen again. And Over Again means that what is happening today is the same as in the past with Hitler," the Belgian school teachers are told. "In the past, the concentration camps were fenced off with barbed wire. Today, the border between Israel and Palestine is marked with barbed wire and a wall."

To the editor:

The article "20 YEARS LATER, NO PEACE, Mideast accords of 1993 see 
little hope of reality," published September 13, was misleading in 
ignoring the primary reason the Oslo process has been such a dismal 
failure: only one of the parties (Israel) has been interested in an 
accommodation with the other.

Obama's Diplomatic Acrobatics

Daniel Pipes
Cross-posted from National Review Online, The Corner

The Obama administration's diplomatic acrobatics over Syria of the past three weeks prove that the president and his team are in way over their heads, amateurs in the deadly game of war and peace. (One wonders if Valerie Jarrett is making the key decisions in this instance, as in so many others.)

Notice a difference? The crowd greeting Obama in Berlin in 2008.

Lurching from self-imposed trap (the "red line" statement) to self-inflicted crisis (the need for congressional approval), the administration erodes the credibility of the U.S. government and increases the dangers facing Americans. Enemies of the United States, its allies, and modern civilization itself will take succor in this ignominious performance and grow in strength. That Obama seems driven to defend his own honor and credibility, regardless of cost, makes this episode particularly troublesome. A great country finds itself held hostage to the ego of a small man.

Abbas: Meet Our Conditions, Then We Can Have Peace

 PIP: Peace isn't Possible

 

PA Chairman tells university graduates in Jericho: Unless all our demands are met, there will not be a peace agreement with Israel.

Elad Benari

Israel’s “peace partner”, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, has once again outright rejected an Israeli demand to ensure a peace agreement that does not harm its security.

In a speech on Sunday to graduates of a university in Jericho, Abbas also clarified that unless all of the PA’s demands are met, there will not be a peace agreement with Israel.

Abbas told the graduates that the eastern border of the State of Palestine along the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley will be with Jordan, thus essentially rejecting an Israeli demand for a special security arrangement in the Jordan Valley, that would allow IDF soldiers to remain in the region after the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In the past, Abbas indicated his willingness to allow an international UN presence in a future Palestinian state, but stressed that not a single Israeli – civilian or soldier - will be allowed in “Palestine”.

WHEN will Israel WAKE UP to act as a sovereign nation?

Ruth King    

Get Over It! It is Not and Has Never Been a Special Relationship 

Partisans of Israel from left and right keep evoking the so called America/Israel special relationship. The left worries that a muscular Israeli response to a mortal threat will threaten the relationship, and the right frets that it has seriously frayed under the Obama administration.

They are both wrong. The so called special relationship is a chimera.
Let’s revisit some history.

In closing critical international shipping lanes, the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser in July, 1956, was a serious provocation to  Great Britain, France and  Israel. Furthermore after continual terrorism and threats Israel had credible intelligence that the Arabs were preparing for war. On Oct. 29, 1956, Israeli forces, directed by Moshe Dayan, launched a combined air and ground assault into Egypt’s Sinai peninsula. Early Israeli successes were reinforced by an Anglo-French invasion along the canal. The November 6 cease fire, demanded by the United Nations and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles led to a total withdrawal by Israel, England and France in exchange for reassurances that the U.N. would monitor the Sinai and keep open the Straits of Tiran crucial for Israel’s shipping. That was special only in the thinly disguised animosity of John Foster Dulles.

Yossi Beilin: PM Rabin did not consult with security or intelligence officials over Oslo

To: imra@imra.org.il


Yossi Beilin: PM Rabin did not consult with security  or intelligence
officials over Oslo
Dr. Aaron Lerner Date: 15 August 2013

Yossi Beilin said in a live interview on Israel Radio broadcast this morning
on Israel Radio Reshet Bet (Hakol Diburim) that he carried out the
negotiations with the PLO that lead to the Oslo Agreements without the
authorization or knowledge of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin.  PM Rabin was
only made aware of the talks at the end of February 1993  after the second
round of talks concluded with a working paper.

Beilin said that from the time that PM Rabin was aware of the talks until
their conclusion, PM Rabin opted not to consult with any security or
intelligence officials.  The security and intelligence officials were not
advised of the existence of the talks.

Beilin explained that Foreign Minister Shimon Peres was also kept out of the
loop because PM Rabin had insisted that FM Peres have no involvement in
negotiations with the Arabs.

Who Oversees Foreign Aid to the Palestinians?

A reminder:

Alexander Joffe

In Palestinian economics, where all the money goes is unclear -- but where does all the money come from? Which U.S. programs give how much and who has legislative oversight? Now that Palestinian Authority (PA) prime minister Salaam Fayyad has announced a plan for September for unilateral Palestinian statehood, which includes a request for $5 billion over three years -- and presumes that the newly announced Fatah-Hamas rapprochement does not scuttle all American aid -- the problem of oversight is all the more pressing.

The fundamental tension between Congress's power of the purse and the president's obligation to make foreign policy has always been clear. But so too is the extent to which certifications and waivers by the Executive blatantly circumvent the express will of Congress and defy its obligations to advise and obtain consent.

The will of Congress and the empirical reality regarding the difficulties of the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian society count for little when successive U.S. presidents waive requirements and certify compliance regardless of Palestinian performance. And presidential ability to "reprogram" funds removes Congress even farther from the equation.

Dangerous Times: Putin the Peacemaker vs. Obama the Warmonger

James Lewis

President Obama has now sabotaged four decades of stability in the Middle East.  First he pulled down the biggest pillar of peace, the Mubarak regime in Egypt; then he bombed Libya into the Dark Ages; and now he has paraded "My Army"  and "My Navy" against the Assad regime in Syria, which is just as evil as the rebels. 


The one thing Obama has never faced honestly is what everybody knows to be the real threat -- namely mullahs with nukes.


In the strangest twist of history, it is Obama the radical leftist who is now acting as the destabilizing warmonger in the Middle East, while Vladimir Putin may be emerging as a stabilizing  peacemaker.


Nobody can figure out whether Obama is the most hapless bumbler in history, or whether there is some sinister purpose behind it all.


It could be both.

Egypt tanks cross fence leading to Gaza

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=629550

A Hamas security guard on duty at the border between Egypt and
Gaza Strip, in Rafah on Sept. 11, 2013 (AFP/FIle Said Khatib)

GAZA CITY (AFP) -- Two Egyptian army tanks crossed an initial border fence leading to Gaza for the first time on Thursday, witnesses said, but did not enter the Palestinian territory itself.

Gaza's Hamas rulers neither confirmed nor denied the incursion, but said no Egyptian tanks had entered the besieged Strip.

The tanks "crossed the first Egyptian border fence along the corridor between Egypt and (Gaza), and drove along the road running next to the cement wall" that Egypt built, the witnesses said.

"20 YEARS LATER, NO PEACE, Mideast accords of 1993 see little hope of reality.

The Waterbury Republican-American today (Friday, September 13, 2013) published an article about the failed Oslo Accords: "20 YEARS LATER, NO PEACE, Mideast accords of 1993 see little hope of reality." This article provides an opportunity to write letters in response similar to a letter, also included below, published today in The Boston Globe. We also include a copy of the excellent op-ed to which that letter responded; both have plenty of ideas that may be used in a letter to the Waterbury Republican-American, which may be sent by email to .

We include the article along with some comments and the excellent letter and op-ed in The Boston Globe.

---

Waterbury Republican-American
September 13, 2013

20 YEARS LATER, NO PEACE
Mideast accords of 1993 see little hope of reality

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ABU DIS, West Bank - In 1993, the words rang hopeful and historic. Israel and the PLO agreed "it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict," live in peaceful co-existence and reach a "just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement."

Twenty years later, the words that launched Israeli-Palestinian talks on dividing the Holy Land into two states ring hollow to many on both sides. Negotiators say mistakes they made then are causing damage to this day.

Palestinians seem no closer now than they were 20 years ago to a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, and some argue they are worse off. The number of Israeli settlers has doubled. East Jerusalem is cut off by an Israeli barrier. Gaza, ruled by the Islamic militant Hamas since 2007, is turning into a distinct enclave.

Many Israelis, scarred by Palestinian suicide bombings and rocket fire from Gaza, are skeptical of the other side's intentions and believe the politically divided Palestinians cannot carry out a peace deal.