Israel to Free 200 Palestinian Prisoners
by Liam Bailey
2008-08-17 19:00:34 **news**
The Israeli Cabinet has voted to free 200 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture of goodwill to Palestinian "president" Mahmoud Abbas, likely a final goodwill gesture before Olmert is replaced in September. Israel is thought to be holding between 8500 and 11000 Palestinian prisoners, at least 700 hundred of which are children. So how about a gesture of common decency: releasing all the Palestinian children, instead of this superficial gesture which is more to enhance Israel's international image than goodwill to the Palestinians.
Meanwhile the Gaza truce is holding in the main, but Israel still fails to seriously slacken the noose that strangles the life from the Palestinian population day by day. Sporadic rocket attacks, which Hamas say are Israeli fabrications to justify their failure to ease restrictions on movement from and to Gaza. Many people will disbelieve the Hamas claims, but they should bear in mind that all rocket attacks are usually admitted to by the responsible party.
So, Olmert will be gone soon, and has a 70 - 30 chance of being replaced by an even more hardliner. The only person who is likely to continue at least creating the impression that they want to give land in return for peace is the current foreign minister Tzipi Livni. The other two candidates for the job are the far right Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu, and Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, neither of whom are advocates of any land-for-peace agreement.
Its all much of a muchness anyway, no matter who gets the job, they won't make the concessions needed to bring peace, and we are still left to wait for the demography time-bomb to kick Israel's leaders up the back-side, or for a shocking change of US policy towards Israel, whichever comes first.
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Comment by neri baron
2008-09-15
There is some changes in Israel understanding that hopefully will bring territory to the Palestinians. Please not some more change in Israel http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1020998.html PM at final cabinet meeting: Greater Israel is no more By Barak Ravid Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday reiterated his view that the vision of Israel retaining the West Bank and Gaza Strip is finished. "Greater Israel is over. There is no such thing. Anyone who talks that way is deluding himself," Olmert told the cabinet during its weekly meeting. He noted that this had not always been his stance: "During Camp David, I thought that [then prime minister] Ehud Barak's concessions were too much, and I told him so," he said, referring to the Israeli-Palestinian talks in July 2000. "I thought that the land from the Jordan River to the [Mediterranean] Sea was all ours. But ultimately, after a long and tortured process, I arrived at the conclusion that we must share with those we live with if we don't want to be a binational state. "Forty years after the Six-Day War, the international community's willingness to accept Israel as a binational state is growing," Olmert said. It is true that negotiations have repeatedly failed due to Palestinian rather than Israeli intransigence, he continued, "but that misses the point" - which is that "time is not on Israel's side." "Some day soon, sooner than we think, we will long for the solutions that some of us reject today," he warned. The meeting focused on a bill that would compensate West Bank settlers who voluntarily evacuate their homes even before a final-status deal is signed. The plan is expected to cost some NIS 2.5 billion. Most families would receive NIS 1.1 million apiece, but those who choose to relocate to the Negev would get an additional 25 percent, while those who move to the Galilee would get an extra 15 percent. According to Vice Premier Haim Ramon, who presented the proposal, 18 percent of the over 60,000 settlers currently living east of the separation fence - some 11,000 settlers - told a survey conducted by the Prime Minister's Office that they would be willing to relocate. "The evacuation of West Bank residents is an unavoidable step for those who believe in two states for two peoples - and that includes most of the Israeli public," Ramon said. He added that Israel's position in the negotiations with the Palestinians, as well as in the eyes of the world, would be bolstered by an announcement that it is moving to end its presence in the West Bank. Ramon said he would submit a formal bill to the cabinet following Wednesday's Kadima party leadership primary. However, all four of the candidates to replace Olmert, who has pledged to resign following the primary, opposed the bill, saying it was premature as long as the final Israeli-Palestinian border remained unknown and was liable to undermine talks with the Palestinians. Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai also opposed the plan, saying his ultra-Orthodox party would do everything in its power to prevent it from being implemented. "Whoever brings about the evacuation of settlers will lead to the evacuation of Jerusalem and the eradication of Jewish identity," Yishai said.