You are correct, you do not understand how biased that you are.

You did it again in your latest:

“Fact is, I think it’s a crying shame that the Palestinian ‘leadership’ is bickering over percentages of land to demand ‘back’ and blissfully admitting that it’s just sitting around and waiting for Israel to offer yet a better deal, while Palestinians are starving, suffering and dying. If that’s ‘avoiding the real issue,’ I suppose I don’t get what the issue is here.”

You claim no bias but you put in quotes “back” – which of course implies that you believe there is nothing to give back…

As in you seem to believe that the Israelis are “giving” something to the Palestinians when in fact they will simply be returning stolen property and resources and getting monetary compensation for the crimes Israel has committed against them.

There is not a single American who would expect less if the shoe was on the other foot yet you cannot seem to grasp this basic fact.

Israel was born of terrorism and ethnic cleansing and war. There can be no reconciliation or going forward towards a fair and just settlement for peace without acknowledging the Nakba and all that is has entailed over the intervening decades, in particular the last four decades of Israel’s brutal land grabbing occupations.

If someone steals your car, would you be happy if the criminal gets to keep a percentage of it?

The Palestinians have been begging to create their state on the remaining 22% of the original mandate.

Israel has already gotten away with 78%.

That’s more than enough Nick, and if you cannot see that, then you are part of the reason that this injustice continues.

That’s my final words in this discussion. Please, I hope you’ll continue to read the site and comment on other articles, but in this instance, I don’t see any point in debating with you any further.

Gee I’m sorry, you are not making sense. Did you think Saab Erekat is not Palestinian?

I’m quite sure the PA leadership well remembers what Israel did to Arafat in Ramallah.

And of course you avoided the the real issue as you so often have since we started this thread.

There is copious evidence that Israel has done everything in its power to prevent peace.

And the most glaring proof is available for all the world to see.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal colonists stealing land and resources from the Palestinians.

Frankly, the Palestinians have been extremely lenient. If it was Americans under such an occupation, we would have stopped it by now.

Of course by your logic, you would just let them come in and kill off some of your family and community members and then bulldoze and take over property at will.

Would you give them candy Nick?

Is suffering and dying for your rights such an alien concept to you Nick?

No. Letting others suffer and die for your sake, is though.

Is suffering and dying for your rights such an alien concept to you Nick?

I’m pretty sure if the same thing was happening to your family and community, where you and yours were being run out at gunpoint and don’t dare fight back or you’ll get shot – you would be fighting to get every inch of your land and your rights back yourselves…

Or maybe you are different than every other human on the planet?

Have you even read the Likud Platform?

[Some ask] where the negotiations with the Israeli side have brought us. First [the Israelis] said we would [only have the right to] run our own schools and hospitals. Then they consented to give us 66% [of the occupied territories].

At Camp David they offered 90%, and [recently] they offered 100%. So why should we hurry, after the all the injustice we have suffered?

Maybe because people are suffering and dying out there?

What was the point? MEMRI has been so discredited for many years that it would be quite hard to believe anything they “translate” – and to be sure they are certainly NOT non-partisan, given the that the organization was created and is run by former Israel intelligence.

Having said that, I read through the Erekat interview twice, and if it can be trusted (and that’s doubtful, see all the brackets?) and that is really Erekat, it sounds like his pragmatism after all, I say so what?

I don’t disagree with his analysis nor what is going to need to happen going forward to ever have a real and durable peace agreement based on UN resolutions, the rule of law, and the Arab Initiative.

Had you asked, I would have told you the same thing and largely did.

So what part did you see that you thought was some big smoking gun?

Now that is a breath of fresh air indeed.

Your last comment is a model of original thinking and rationally considering my thoughts.

I certainly agree that the principle of ‘territory acquired by war is inadmissible’ principle has been violated by other state and non-state actors since 1945 is undoubtedly true.

I know that principle was emphasized in res 242, and that is why successive US administrations, the United Nations, and the world community has viewed any transfer of Israeli citizens into occupied territory as illegal.

President Obama made that quite clear and the position has not changed, this administration, as the last one did, views Israeli colonies as illegitimate.

All of them. They are well covered in long established UN resolutions and international law.

Logically then, movement towards peace should move along those lines, end the occupation, and indeed it has, many many times.

Except it has been one way for the Palestinians and one way for the Israelis, and yes, since Israel is a client state of the US, we do bear a certain amount of responsibility for what Israel is up to.

Palestinians bear the brunt of the criticism, even as if they accept the ’67 borders and East Jerusalem as their capital, they are accepting 22% of the original mandate.

Right now, as an interlude, a quick Google search for the United Nations West Bank Fragmentation Map might be in order.

When I view the map, and then I read folks writing about how the Palestinians should just settle for what they get, well, as a Eastern Band Cherokee in Charlotte, North Carolina, I’m not to thrilled by the idea.

The point is, we didn’t have the Geneva Conventions back in the day.

The Palestinians do.

Have you any thoughts on the reported Ehud Olmert offer including a map, that Abbas supposedly simply refused?

What I hear in a reverse, sort of perverse, sort of way, is that Abu Mazen could not depend on Olmert as a *peace partner*, because of all the impending indictments and the war he was waging on Gaza to win an election.