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J Street: Report of Slogan Change False, but Campus Groups Needn't Be Pro-Israel

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Israeli settlements increased by 40 percent after Oslo and u claim that they were not building new settlements. Wow. Also the rates of terrorism dropped drastically. However if you have evidence to the contrary why don't you post a link.
The Olso accords nor the later negotiations never envisioned any such transition period of partial sovereignty. That is completely false.
What was offered to the Palestinians was nothing more than a Bantustan.
There is only that many ways Israelis can make up stories of grabbing Palestinian lands.

mxm of MN 9:01AM November 01, 2009

No the Israelis not completely stopped building settlements. They did stop building new ones though. I've never thought they were saints. But Israel was never going to surrender all the lands it took; that would have been strategically stupid given the hostility of all their neighbors. Of course the Palestineans never stopped trying to kill civilians anywhere in Israel that they could. If fact there is significant evidence that the level of terrorism went up after the initial accords were signed. Which do you think is the greater crime?
And no the Palestineans were not going to be given complete sovereignty over the lands they would be able to self-govern. That would have been foolish. There would have been a transition period to see if the Palestineans were serious about the peace. It wasn't until some years after WWII ended that West Germany and Japan got control of their countries back either.
On 2000 at the Camp David summit, Israel offered the entire Gaza strip and about 3/4s of the West Bank to the Palestineans (with the plan being to turn more over in time) to be their nation. They turned it down. If they had accepted it; if they had really wanted peace, it was there for the taking. By now they would be well on their way to full sovereignty. Their foolishness cost them that.

Scott of MN 4:06PM October 31, 2009

Can you tell me which year of the Oslo Peace process did the Israelis stop grabbing land for settlements. That is correct. They never stopped. So how can u claim that the Israelis offered genuine concession when they were continuing to grab land, when the initial Oslo agreed forbade it.
The Palestinians rejected, and rightly so, what was nothing more than a Bantustan, with no control over their own land, air or water. And the next time you talk of terrorism I hope you recognize that ethnically cleansing people of their land under the barrel of a gun is terrorism. State sponsored terror.
Israelis have become quite good at using terror, holocaust as excuses to obfuscate their own actions.

mxm of MN 10:39AM October 30, 2009

The Oslo Peace Process? All those years of negotiating to see if a true peace could be achieved and it came to nothing because the Palestineans in the end rejected the Israeli offer of most of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel offered concessions far beyond anything they had offered before. The Palestineans rejected them and went back to full scale terrorism, which continues to this day. No surprise there as they had been telling their own radical elements that the negotiations were nothing more than a ploy to see how much they might get through a treaty, which they would have been prepared to break at the moment they were ready to renew their assault on Israel.
The Palestineans had a chance for a peace and a nation of their own but chose war instead. They have become quite adept at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Scott of MN 1:33AM October 30, 2009

What concessions? Every year before, during and after the Oslo Peace accords, Israel has take Palestinian land. And you claim some great concession. Peace for a Israel is a rope-a-dope process whereby claims of terrorism and the holocaust are used to obfusticate the great Israeli Land grab.
During the Oslo process, there was very little violence. What did the Palestinians get ? More settlements.

mxm of MN 7:44PM October 29, 2009

I am sure there are no small number of Israelis who have no interest in peace but I am also sure most do despite the continual provocations they have faced over the decades. Every concession the Israelis have made to the Palestineans has been met by increased violence. No wonder the Israelis have little interest in a viable Palestinean state when all the evidence shows Palestine would be used as a base for increased assaults on Israel.
The Palestineans would have been far wiser to follow the example of someone like Ghandhi; they would have had a nation a long time ago.

Scottq of MN 7:31PM October 29, 2009

If the Israelis are so yearning for peace how come they are still grabbing Palestinian land ? The land offered to the Palestinians in the past was a bunch of reservations/Bantustans, not a proper country.

mxm of MN 6:24PM October 29, 2009

When Gilgoff says "J Street U has decided to allow campus affiliates to depart from J Street's pro-Israel position" that is an utterly false statement. J Street U has decided to allow campus affiliates to not put the words "pro-Israel" on their marketing materials so that students who are interested in promoting Middle East peace but think "anti-Arab" when they hear "pro-Israel" will keep an open-mind about the organization. The organization nonetheless is working to achieve Middle East peace in the interest of advancing Israeli security, whether or not the students put the words "pro-Israel" on their fliers.

Daniel Sieradski of NY 1:21AM October 29, 2009

Just because they haven't built a concentration camp for Jews does not mean that many of them would not like to do so. All you have to do is see and hear the hostility directed at Israel throughout the Arab world. They simply haven't been given the opportunity to build a camp as I am sure Israel would wipe it out. There is also the matter of rounding up enough Jews to fill it; something not at all likely to happen again.
The Palestineans can have peace any time they are willing to give up war; they could have had peace decades ago but have at every opportunity refused it.
I'm sure there are many, many Arabs who want peace and do not hate Israel. Unfortunately, they do not run the nations of the Arab world.

Scott of MN 11:57PM October 28, 2009

"Arabs are not interested in peace. They will only be satisfied when they eradicate the Jewish state and every Jew living in it."
Name one Arab/Muslim country that built a concentration camp. You are accusing the wrong people. I have not met one Jew hater among the Arabs and Muslims I know. BTW, the evangelicals trash us in private. I've heard it.

misha of PA 8:35PM October 28, 2009