April 2, 2009

For all the good people who still speak as if the two-state solution has not died some decades ago, before it was properly born,Lieberman’s speech may provide a powerful anti-dote to reality-avoidance blues. After 42 years, do you wish to wait another 42 years before you give up on this charade by Israel and its erstwhile partners in crime, the USA and Europe? The Palestinians have not got another four decades to wait and suffer…

Lieberman: Israel is changing its policies on peace: Ha’aretz

New foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Wednesday that Israel was changing its policies on the peace process and was not bound by commitments it made at a U.S.-sponsored conference to pursue creation of a Palestinian state. During an official ceremony at the President’s Residence on Wednesday, Lieberman said: “There is one document that obligates us – and that’s not the Annapolis conference, it has no validity. His speech was made in reference to a 2007 gathering in Annapolis, Maryland attended by participants from about 40 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and Indonesia. “The Israeli government never ratified Annapolis, nor did Knesset,” Lieberman said. He said that instead, Israel would follow a course charted by the U.S.-backed peace road map. Lieberman said later that the declaration was not an empty statement, but “an expression of a change in Israel’s policy regarding the peace process,” Channel 10 reported.
The peformance-based plan made the creation of a Palestinian state contingent on the Palestinians reining in militants. It also obligated Israel to freeze all settlement activity on Palestinian land. The joint statement drafted at the 2007 conference, which was hosted by then U.S. president George Bush, declared: “We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples, to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition, to propagate a culture
of peace and non-violence, and to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis. “In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security: We agree to immediately launch good faith bilateral negotiations in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues, without exception, as specified in previous agreements. A source in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party confirmed Wednesday that his new government intended to distance itself from U.S.-sponsored understandings on working towards a Palestinian state.

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