Yes, There Is A North Korea Update

There has been much said about the d”deal” struck with the Kim/Trump “summit” back in June…..and there has been reports that there may be a deal on the nukes but they, North Korea, are still building long range missiles….then the question is if we are being “nice” to each other why does the North need long range missiles (of course we could ask that of the US also)

I thought I might help my readers an update on the situation with North Korea…….

Our Dear Leader received a letter from BFF Kim…….

President Trump teased an upcoming meeting with Kim Jong Un on Thursday as the White House confirmed the North Korean leader sent him a letter “aimed at following up on their meeting in Singapore.” In a tweet, Trump thanked Kim for the “nice letter” and for keeping his promise of returning what’s believed to be the remains of US soldiers who fought in the Korean War, which arrived in Hawaii on Wednesday, per the AP. “I look forward to seeing you soon!” he added. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders didn’t comment on when the two leaders might meet again, but she said Kim’s letter spoke of “advancing the commitments made” at their June summit, spoofed in a K-pop artist’s latest music video, per CNN.

But how is this whole de-nukeing going? SecState Pompeo can answwer that…..

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says North Korea is far from living up to its pledge to denuclearize and remains in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions. Speaking Friday before he attends an Asian security forum with North Korea’s foreign minister, Pompeo told reporters in Singapore there was “still a ways to go” before achieving the goal of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons. Pompeo’s comments came after the White House announced Thursday that President Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and responded quickly with a letter of his own.

The correspondence came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump, the AP reports. “Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize,” Pompeo told reporters accompanying him to Singapore. “The world demanded that (he) do so in the UN Security Council resolutions. To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the UN Security Council resolutions, we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we’re looking for.” (Intelligence officials reportedly suspect that North Korea is continuing to build new missiles.)

The US has been criticized at the ASEAN meeting……

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says North Korea is far from living up to its pledge to denuclearize and remains in violation of numerous UN Security Council resolutions. Speaking Friday before he attends an Asian security forum with North Korea’s foreign minister, Pompeo told reporters in Singapore there was “still a ways to go” before achieving the goal of ridding the North of its nuclear weapons. Pompeo’s comments came after the White House announced Thursday that President Trump received a new letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and responded quickly with a letter of his own.

The correspondence came amid fresh concerns over Pyongyang’s commitment to denuclearization despite a rosy picture of progress painted by Trump, the AP reports. “Chairman Kim made a commitment to denuclearize,” Pompeo told reporters accompanying him to Singapore. “The world demanded that (he) do so in the UN Security Council resolutions. To the extent they are behaving in a manner inconsistent with that, they are in violation of one or both the UN Security Council resolutions, we can see we still have a ways to go to achieve the ultimate outcome we’re looking for.” (Intelligence officials reportedly suspect that North Korea is continuing to build new missiles.)

That is as up to date as I can get without being in the loop with Pompeo and that shall not happen because I think he is a slug…..was so when in Congress and has not changed since becoming SecState.

Mines That Litter The Diplomatic Field

I realize that most people are trying to wrap their heads around just what the deal is with Dear Leader and Putin…but there is another situation that should not be ignored.

Even the most moronic of Trump supporters has got his mind full of the Kim-Trump “summit”….most seem to think that some sort of peace deal is inevitable simply because the two men met and complimented each and that is all it takes to end 70 years of hostilities…..to that way of think I say….you are dreaming moose brains!

I wrote a couple of posts after the “summit” had taken place describing what could happen as the process went forward…..5

https://lobotero.com/2018/06/13/what-are-the-summit-successes/

https://lobotero.com/2018/06/14/peace-in-our-time-4/

The negotiations to rid the Korean Peninsula of the threat of nukes could hit several land mines in diplomacy……

A denuclearization deal with North Korea is more within reach than anyone could have thought possible a very short time ago. Thanks to the tireless diplomatic work of Moon Jae In of South Korea and the unexpectedly adept diplomatic work of Kim Jong Un of North Korea, a joint statement between North Korea and the United States exists and the impossible is suddenly under way.

Those who dismiss the the joint agreement as vague and vacuous and light on detail forget how far the language of the joint declaration has traveled since Trump’s first “fire and fury like the world has never seen” attempt at diplomacy. They also commit the error of comparing the joint statement to history’s final agreements rather than to other first meetings. The diplomacy may also have more content than the joint statement reveals, since some steps seem to have been negotiated that have not yet been made public.

https://original.antiwar.com/Ted_Snider/2018/06/27/the-three-landmines-that-could-kill-the-korea-deal/

There are NO guarantees that this will be a successful diplomatic effort……we can wish them well….but it will be up to the diplomats working behind the scenes to make it a success.

But we should not put too much in the denuke basket? Why?

Bill Clinton offered oil and reactors. George W. Bush mixed threats and aid. Barack Obama stopped trying after a rocket launch.

A decades-long cycle of crises, stalemates and broken promises gave North Korea the room to build up a legitimate arsenal that now includes purported thermonuclear warheads and developmental ICBMs. The North’s latest announcement stopped well short of suggesting it has any intention of giving that up.

A look at previous negotiations with North Korea and how the currently planned summits took shape:

https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/04/22/road-to-north-koreas-denuclearization-is-littered-with-failure/

When Is Peace Not Peace?

After many years of negotiations the novice to any peace in the Middle East has a plan and his father in law has apparently signed in on….and the cowards of the Middle East……Jordan, UAE, Egypt and the extremists in Saudi Arabia have signaled that they will back any moronic plan that the Trump group can come up with.

Trump is letting his son-in-law do the deal that so many have tried and failed…..and what this tool Kushner has proposed will do nothing to bring peace…..

Is there no humiliation left for the Palestinians? After Oslo, after the “two state solution”, after the years of Israeli occupation – of “Area A” and “Area C” to define which kind of occupation the Palestinians must live under – after the vast Jewish colonisation of land thieved from its Arab owners, after the mass killings of Gaza, and Trump’s decision that Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, must be the capital of Israel, are the Palestinians going to be asked to settle for cash and a miserable village? Is there no shame left?

For the Palestinians are soon to be awarded the “ultimate deal” – “ultimate”, as in the last, definitive, terminal, conclusive, no-more-cards-to-play, cash-in-your-chips, go-for-broke, take-it-or-leave-it, to-hell-with-you, cease-and-desist, endgame “deal”. A pitiful village as a capital, no end to colonisation, no security, no army, no independent borders, no unity – in return for a huge amount of money, billions of dollars and euros, millions of pounds, zillions of dinars and shekels and spondulix and filthy lucre, the real

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/palestine-jared-kushner-ultimate-plan-israel-donald-trump-jerusalem-right-to-return-a8420836.html

There is NOTHING in his plan that would appeal to a Palestinian and yet he is allowed to speak for them……where have we seen this sort of “plan” before…….think hard….history is not that difficult.

Four Arab countries are backing Donald Trump’s plan for a settlement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, according to an Israeli newspaper, and are willing to sideline the PA’s President Mahmoud Abbas to see it done.

According to a report in Israel Hayom, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Jordan told Jared Kushner, the US President Trump’s son-in-law and the man charged with solving the Israel-Palestine issue, and envoy Jason Greenblatt they were behind Washington’s so-called “deal of the century”.

Israel Hayom, a daily newspaper owned by billionaires Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, reported that it spoke to officials from the four Arab countries.

The officials are said to have told the paper that their countries have decided to back the US plan regardless of whether Abbas and the PA engage with it.

I do not trust anything that the creep Adelson would print…..he has wanted the destruction of the Palestinian people for decades….he is a murderer at heart like his illegal state.

Jordan has been called the key to any deal….does that include a whitewash of any peace deal that favors Israel?

Upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returning on June 18 from his first public visit to Jordan in four years, his office issued a truly minimalist statement on his meeting with King Abdullah II at the Royal Palace in Amman. The first sentence said the two had “discussed regional developments, advancing the peace process and bilateral relations,” its banality highlighting the sole and interesting message in the second sentence: “PM Netanyahu reiterated Israel’s commitment to maintaining the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem.”

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/06/israel-us-jordan-palestinians-king-abdullah-netanyahu-trump.html

Any deal the Kushner, Adelson and any like minded people will be no help to Palestine or its people it will always be for the benefit of Israel……

Honor, like integrity, is not a commodity, like a gilded condominium in New York City for sale to the highest bidder. Nor does it license a messenger to whisper through a backdoor that which cannot be said through the front because it’s been closed for want of fairness and respect.

Yet, having been rebuked by Palestinian leadership due to the shameful move of the US Embassy to the capital of Palestine that is precisely what Jared Kushner has tried to do with his deceitful appeal to the Palestinian people in his recent interview with Al Quds.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/06/29/the-peace-deal-that-is-all-israel/

Any deal that does not include equitable treatment of Palestinians will be no peace at all….and so far I have seen nothing that resembles equity.

Coming Together In Peace

That is the feeling that we get from some of the news reports on the outcome of the Kim-Trump “summit”….and yet not everyone is on-board with this feeling…..

An implicit coalition of corporate media, Democratic partisans and others loyal to the national security state are actively hostile to any agreement that would endanger the continuation of the 70-year-old Cold War between the United States and North Korea.

The hostility toward Donald Trump on the part of both corporate media (except for Fox News) and the Democratic Party establishment is obviously a factor in the negative response to the summit. Trump’s dysfunctional persona, extremist domestic strategy and attacks on the press had already created a hyper-adversarial political atmosphere that surrounds everything Trump says or does.

https://original.antiwar.com/porter/2018/06/21/an-elite-coalition-emerges-against-a-trump-kim-agreement/

I think that the meeting was a good idea….since we are not privy to what was actually said in the meeting of the personas I will give them the benefit of the doubt….I think that the media is giving this “summit” too much credit…it was a meeting for two leaders and that is all….any progress toward peace will be made or not in the negotiations that are to come.

So was this meeting a success? You betcha. The photo ops were worth their weight in gold as they say…..and it gave enough speculation to the media to keep them going for awhile or until something new grabs their attention….and it has.

Closing Thought–10May18

My doctors visit was just awful….I was scolded for taking 2 pills too many…..now they want me to give up wine….that may be a request too far…chuq

I watched the landing of the plane carrying the North Korean hostages home……it was a great photo op……

A proud moment for President Trump: Trump, accompanied by Melania Trump, Mike Pence, and Karen Pence, was on hand to welcome three former prisoners back from North Korea at Joint Base Andrews outside Washington early Thursday, the AP reports. Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song, and Kim Sang Duk were released Wednesday after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with North Korean officials. The three men arrived at the base at 2:42am on a Boeing C-40 equipped with medical facilities and were taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for evaluation. “This is a special night for these three really great people,” Trump said as he stood on the tarmac with them. He thanked Kim Jong Un and said the North Korean leader “really wants to do something” about denuclearization.

The men “appear to be in good condition and were all able to walk on the plane without assistance,” the State Department said in a statement after the release. When the plane stopped to refuel in Alaska, the three men released a statement thanking the US government, Trump, Pompeo, “and all our families and friends who prayed for us and for our return,” adding: “God bless America, the greatest nation in the world.” All three men had been serving sentences of at least a decade in labor camps, Newsweek reports. Kim Sang Duk, also known as Tony Kim, and Kim Hak Song are university professors who were arrested a year ago and accused of trying to subvert the regime. Kim Dong Chul, a pastor, had been detained since October 2015. In 2016, he was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for espionage.

Now that they are safely home I would like to ask……what the Hell were they doing in North Korea? I thought there was a travel ban for North Korea. Did they wake up one morning and decide to press their luck and venture into North Korea knowing full well what would most likely happen to them? I mean we have plenty of examples of the sentence for foreigners in North Korea.

Again what the Hell were they doing there? Is there any consequence for failing to observe the ban? Please let’s not call them “heroes”…I am weary of that title being a catch all for every situation…this is not one of those situations.

These are questions that seem to slip everyone’s mind at times like this…..

On a Final Note: Trump has told the world where and when the Korean summit will be held……

The time and date are set: President Trump will meet with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12. “We will both try to make it a very special moment for World Peace!

Oh goody……more photo ops and Twitter fodder…..the MSM will have a field day with speculation……this meeting should produce nothing but media ratings.

Is It A One State Solution?

Just before Christmas our president recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel…..making good on the promises that he made to his bankers during his election…..and as one would expect the Palestinians did not find this announcement acceptable and violence has ensued.

It is time for a new beginning.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital came as no surprise to most Palestinians, for, after all the US’ political backing and military funding of Israel is older than the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Trump’s decision, however, has exposed the “peace process” for the last time as a complete charade. It also exposed the Palestinian leadership as corrupt, subservient and politically bankrupt.

If the Palestinian leadership had a minimal degree of accountability, it would immediately undertake a total overhaul within its ranks and activate all Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) institutions, bring all factions together under the umbrella of the PLO and declare a unified strategy inspired by the aspirations and sacrifices of the Palestinian people.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/palestine-180116110352197.htm

Abbas is the leader of the PA and his tenure has been nothing but a hurry up ans wait strategy……a strategy that did nothing to further the plight of the Palestinian people……

When I first met Yasser Arafat in besieged Beirut, in the summer of 1982, Abu Mazen was not present. But when I met him again in Tunis, a few months later, he asked me to meet Abu Mazen, too.

Abu Mazen, it transpired, was the Fatah leader in charge of Israeli matters.

My first impression of Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) was that he was the exact opposite of Arafat. He looked like a schoolmaster.

Arafat was an outgoing type, who liked to embrace and kiss people and to establish close relations from the outset. Abu Mazen was much more reserved and withdrawn. Yet I liked his personality.

Even then, more than 35 years ago, he belonged to the first rank of the Fatah and PLO leadership, side by side with people like Abu Jihad (who was killed by Israel), Abu Iyad (who was killed by Palestinian extremists), Farouk Kaddoumi (who objected to Oslo and was excluded).

https://original.antiwar.com/avnery/2018/01/19/abbas-strategy-of-patience/

The whole peace process that has been debated for decades is about to slide into history…….

Since President Donald Trump declared that the United States recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the question has been whether this break with past American policy weakens or advances the cause of peace. A corollary to that question is whether the move effectively excludes Washington from the peace process.

https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2017/12/19/peace_process_palestine_israel_jerusalem_history_112666.html

For decades the solution that most parties worked for was a two state solution….but since Trump’s announcement that solution has been losing its luster…..and now the possibility of a one state solution is getting more popular…….

The Israeli right, emboldened by President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, is not the only faction arguing for a single state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has also begun to ask whether that might not be such a bad idea, though it has a radically different view of what that state would look like.

As momentum ebbs for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, both sides are taking another look at the one-state idea. But that solution has long been problematic for both sides.

But there is a problem there also…..the one state solution would have to give the Palestinians full rights as citizens of Israel…..not happening for the Palestinian population is expanding faster than the Israeli and within a generation the Israelis would become a minority….the Israelis could not stand for that…..democracy is the last thing that Israel would want for the Palestinians…….

Full equality will not happen in Israel for Palestinians….and the possibility for a peaceful one state solution is dwindling…..Zionists will not accept Palestinians as equals.

Troops plan for peace in the region is to blackmail the Palestinians…..while allowing the Israelis to get away with murder (pun intended)…….

Then BiBi has a new plan …….

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahy was talking up what he’s calling a “new model” for a peace deal with the Palestinians, which appears to be his latest alternative to the two-state solution, which he once again refused to endorse.

Netanyahu complained he wanted to avoid “labels” by talking about two states, but set out a policy which is clearly well short of such a solution, offering to allow the Palestinians to have “the whole trappings of self-governance,” but with Israel maintaining formal control.

Eager to avoid labels, Netanyahu was a bit vague beyond Israel keeping total security control over Palestine permanently, but appears to be suggesting that they’d be allowed to have some measure of autonomy within Palestine as an Israeli-ruled territory.

There is nothing new about this plan……it is a plan to try and head off the BDS which is gaining support almost daily….it is a plan to throw cold water on criticism on the international stage……only friend Israel has is one that they paid for in political dollars….the US.

https://bdsmovement.net/

The Palestine Question

I have written about the Palestinian/Israeli situation for years…..I have even given my idea on a way from them to establish a separate state…..the protests by Palestinians have been going on for 20+ years although there has been friction between the two people since 1919 and the end of World War One. (more info about posts c an be learned using the “Search” feature)

A new round of all out disobedience has begun with Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem…..this situation opens up a whole new line of thought about the two states…..

What does Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel mean for the future of Palestine and the Palestinians, and what does it reveal about US policy? Al-Shabaka policy analysts examine these questions and recommend ways for Palestinian civil society and leaders to safeguard Palestinian rights in the face of such a setback.

Nur Arafeh argues that Trump’s announcement cements Israel’s apartheid regime and “Judaization” policies in Jerusalem, and calls for the PA to end coordination with Israel and nullify the Oslo Accords. Dana El Kurd makes the case that the US move creates two opposing legal frameworks for Jerusalem, one that follows international law and one that bends to Israeli interests. “[Trump’s declaration] sets a precedent for greater legal recognition in the future,” she writes. “Palestinians should consider new ways of resisting Israeli colonization.” Munir Nuseibah reasons that the development confirms the US as a biased mediator. “The only positive outcome is that it ends the illusion that the ‘peace process’ is legitimate,” he writes.

https://al-shabaka.org/roundtables/trump-jerusalem-future-palestine/

That was the opinions of analysts in the region……

Some in the West are saying that with Trump’s announcement that the idea of a one state solution was once again on the table….

Jerusalem was an Arab and Muslim city for close to 1300 years. Like other parts of Palestine, it was a harmonious mosaic. But, though there was always a Christian and Jewish presence — both of people and of monuments — it was predominantly a Muslim city.

This was violently disrupted twice: first in the year 1099, from which for a period of 88 years the city was occupied by the Crusaders, and then again in 1948 when the newly created Jewish State took the city and made Jerusalem its own. When the State of Israel took the western part of the city in 1948, in violation of a United Nations Resolution, it destroyed its Arab and Muslim character and then declared it as the capital city of the Jewish people.

http://www.mintpressnews.com/one-state-solution-with-equal-rights-is-the-only-answer-to-trumps-jerusalem-declaration/235569/

Requiem For Middle East Peace

Last week the US did what it has been doing for decades only this time they came out of the closet and proved that it had NO intention of settling the problems in the Middle East….problems that it helped create……problems that it feed for 70 years.

For years the US has been the harbinger of ill will towards the Palestinian people…..for years it has said that the only answer to the problems was that of a two state solution……and the if one knee jerk decision Fearless Fosdick has ended any hope of a peaceful solution.

Defying dire, worldwide warnings, President Trump on Wednesday broke with decades of US and international policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Trump declared that he was ending an approach that for decades has failed to advance the prospects for peace, per the AP. “I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” he said in a White House address, calling it “overdue” and in the best interests of the US. He said recognition acknowledged the “obvious”—that Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s government despite the disputed status that is one of the key elements in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. “This is nothing more or less than the recognition of reality,” Trump said.

There are many questions that normal Americans will probably ask…..and there is some great answers to these questions….

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/12/trump-jerusalem-move-key-questions-answered-171206074533021.html

In policy terms, a central question is what President Trump recognised as Israel’s capital. Was it West Jerusalem, thereby leaving open the possibility that East Jerusalem would be the capital of a future state of Palestine? Was it present-day municipal Jerusalem within its unilaterally expanded borders, thereby essentially pre-empting the final status of the city? Or was it some third variant? His statement was not clear.

On the one hand, Trump specifically cited the Jerusalem Embassy Act as the basis of his decision, which refers to the “undivided” Jerusalem that Israel considers to be under its sovereignty. In justifying his decision, he mentioned locations not just within West Jerusalem (the parliament, Supreme Court, and prime minister’s residence) but also within the occupied Old City, including Al-Aqsa Mosque, without stating that he was or was not recognising Israeli sovereignty in the East.

https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/eastern-mediterranean/israelpalestine/counting-costs-us-recognition-jerusalem-israels-capital

The big question now is how this stupid decision will effect the Palestinian struggle?

https://972mag.com/is-jerusalem-forcing-a-new-direction-for-the-palestinian-struggle/131340/

The world has now got to take sup the slack….the US has left a gaping hole in the fabric of the planet……

https://shareblue.com/world-leaders-forced-to-hold-emergency-meeting-because-of-trump/#.WiwW87qQdpY.twitter

The plight of the Palestinian people is up to the world…..maybe now it will step up and do the right thing…..it has for too long bowed to the US….now te world needs to PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

Closing Thought–18Aug17

After 50 years of conflict!

If anyone can recall our fearless leader said that a Middle East peace deal would be offered in his first days……that did not work out as planned……

By now it is obvious that the “ultimate deal” between Israelis and Palestinians, which President Donald Trump promised in his first days in office, was little more than an optical illusion. A series of conversations with Israeli, Palestinian and diplomatic sources depicts a very different picture. The diplomatic process is bogged down. President Trump is not involved in any way, nor does he have any interest in getting involved. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is severely disappointed with the United States, and the US “peace team” has lost what limited credibility it had on the Palestinian side. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government is rubbing its hands eagerly beneath the table and dismissing all the serious concerns that sullied the mood of the past few months. Nothing will happen, because there is nothing there, ministers from the Likud and HaBayit HaYehudi whisper with smug satisfaction. We can all calm down.

Source: Trump’s plan for Mideast peace fades

I thought then that it was his normal idle promise…..

I have been saying for years that since the US will not step up and help find a peaceful conclusion to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that the Pals should expand their reach and ask other powerful countries for help….

Maybe someone was listening…..for the Chinese have stepped into the process in the region…..

China’s UN ambassador urged the international community on Monday to support President Xi Jinping’s new four-point proposal to end the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establish an independent Palestinian state.

Liu Jieyi said at a news conference that China’s future diplomatic efforts will focus on trying to move toward a negotiated solution based on the four proposals.

Xi signaled China’s stepped-up engagement in the Middle East when he met about two weeks ago in Beijing with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and outlined the plan.

The four points are:

– Advancing the two-state solution based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of a new Palestinian state.

Upholding “the concept of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security,” immediately ending Israeli settlement building, taking immediate measures to prevent violence against civilians, and calling for an early resumption of peace talks.

– Coordinating international efforts to put forward “peace-promoting measures that entail joint participation at an early date.”

– Promoting peace through development and cooperation between the Palestinians and Israel.

Sounds like every other plan these days…..couldn’t hurt having another player in this game…….

A small step for a large problem…..I wish them luck and success. chuq

Is A Solution Possible?

For many years the group known as Hamas has been “fighting” the state of Israel……so hard that it is on the terror list…..in the beginning the charter that set up the group called for the eradication of the state of Israel as their goal….and has worked to that aim since the beginning…….

But just recently Hamas has updated it charter…….

Hamas has presented a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, without recognising the statehood of Israel, and says that the conflict in Palestine is not a religious one.

The positions were made official on Monday in Qatar’s capital, Doha, by Khaled Meshaal, the leader-in-exile of the Palestinian group that runs the besieged Gaza Strip.

“We shall not waive an inch of the Palestinian home soil, no matter what the recent pressures are and no matter how long the occupation,” Meshaal said as he revealed the document to the public after two years of work.

Source: Hamas Accepts Palestinian State With 1967 Borders | World Affairs Journal

If the reader is interested then this link will take you to the document in question……

Source: Hamas in 2017: The document in full | Middle East Eye

This is a moderate step forward for Hamas….while the document did nor call for the eradication of Israel…it still did not recognize their right to exist. They also have agreed to accept the 1967 borders as the state of Palestine.

In the past couple of weeks, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, succeeded in making the issue of its “new political document” a major news headline. It was not just about propaganda; Hamas was also preparing its anxious supporters for the release of the document, while gauging reactions on the leaked clauses of the new document.

The controversy surrounding the movement’s former Charter, first published in 1988, is not new. It dates back to the second Palestinian uprising (known as the Second Intifada) in 2000, especially after the late Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin stated in 2003 that Hamas would accept the two-state solution as a temporary solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Source: What is next for Hamas? | Middle East | Al Jazeera

Give Israel a few days and they will condemn this as some sort of “trick”…..

I say why not explore the turn of events if peace is truly what Israel has in mind…..my thought that Israel is more concerned about the acquisition of land than in peace.

And then Abba the leader of the PA comes to DC and meets with Trump and we have a promise of a settlement of hostilities in the “Holy Land”….

President Donald Trump expressed optimism for resumed peace talks between the Palestinians and Israel at the start of his Oval Office meeting with Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday in Washington, his first direct meeting with the Palestinian leader, the AP reports. Trump, who said he’ll “do whatever is necessary” to reach a Mideast peace agreement, added he’d “love to to be a mediator, an arbitrator, or a facilitator” between the two sides and thinks “there’s a very, very good chance” of bringing Israel and the Palestinians together. In fact, he noted as a luncheon began, the solution may be just within reach. “It’s something, frankly, maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years,” he said, per NBC News. He added, however, that a deal “cannot be imposed by the United States or any other nation.”

Trump didn’t provide any details about how the process might work, though he mentioned he’s long heard that brokering peace between the two sides was “perhaps the toughest deal” to make. He took that as a challenge, telling Abbas, “Let’s see if we can prove them wrong, OK?” Abbas, for his part, speaking through an interpreter, said that he’s hopeful for bringing about a “just and comprehensive” peace with Israel “based on the vision of two states,” using the borders of 1967 as a foundation. The Palestinian leader says it’s time for Israel to end its occupation of its land. Israel has rejected those 1967 lines as a possible border, saying it would impose security risks. Abbas said he believed he and Trump can be “true partners” in their efforts. “We are coming into a new opportunity … that would enable us to bring about peace” in the region, he noted.

How easy can it be?

Without details I am not impressed…anyone can say a settlement is coming….but the proof will be in the process…..so far I do not see one….

Did I miss something?

In Saner Thought

"It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error"..Thomas Paine

Tag: Peace Process