New Palestinian referendum. This is HUGE. Where the hell is the press ????

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bushman
Joined
Sep 22, 2004
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The press have put it up and let it quietly drop away...
Palestinians get to decide whether Israel should exist.

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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Palestinians eye referendum gauntlet

</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBYL --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=416 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>By James Reynolds
BBC News, Jerusalem
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For much of 2006, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has come across as a rather marginal, desultory figure.
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Palestinians may get a chance to say what kind of state they want

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He has watched his own Fatah party lose parliamentary elections to Hamas. He has failed to persuade Israel to hold any kind of meaningful peace talks.
In short - good job title, no impact. But now, for the first time in many months, he has taken the initiative.
His threat to hold a referendum has caught Hamas off guard.
Some in the Islamic movement suggest a national vote may be a good idea. After all, Hamas is pretty good at winning Palestinian elections.
But others say it is an attempt to hijack and influence the outcome of talks among Palestinian factions.
Competing visions
If it goes ahead, the referendum will be based on a lengthy document drafted by Hamas and Fatah prisoners, who are currently being held in Israeli jails.
The document has 18 main points. In effect, it calls on the Palestinian people to accept an independent state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. That may be important.
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Mr Abbas is gambling on Hamas taking a pragmatic approach

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For the last generation, the Palestinian cause has been defined by two competing schools of thought.
The first, championed by people like Mr Abbas, calls for the creation of a state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip living alongside the state of Israel.
The second, outlined in the Hamas charter, calls for an independent state on all of historic Palestine replacing the state of Israel.
Now for the first time - if Mr Abbas' referendum goes ahead - the Palestinian people will get to decide for themselves exactly what kind of state they really want.
Hamas influence
The Palestinian leader is gambling on one central belief: that the majority of his people are ready to accept a two-state solution.
He is betting that many of those who voted for Hamas in January's parliamentary election did so not because they wanted to destroy Israel, but rather because they wanted to fight corruption.
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Hamas PM Ismail Haniya has not ruled out a longer truce with Israel

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Perhaps most importantly, Mr Abbas is betting that Hamas itself is ready to be flexible.
The Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has suggested in a number of interviews in recent months that his movement may be prepared to accept some kind of long-term truce with Israel in return for a Palestinian state made up of Gaza and the West Bank.
If he wins, Mr Abbas will find himself with a strong democratic mandate. The White House might even push Israel into meaningful talks with him. But there are many, many "ifs" before it gets to that. Hamas has yet to decide exactly what to do. If the referendum goes ahead, its role in the campaign may be decisive.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5021358.stm
 
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Let me clear my eyes: The second, outlined in the Hamas charter, calls for an independent state on all of historic Palestine replacing the state of Israel ?????
 

bushman
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This lets the Palestinians vote for policy. Pretty unreal.

I reckon the Palestinians picked Hamas because Hamas fights back, not because of their policy towards Israeli autonomy.

This is miles more important than that unilateral nonsense Israel is fantasising about, Hamas will fight it tooth and nail because it could change a long held policy on the ground.
 

bushman
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Jerusalem, and the rest of it, has already been decided 50 years ago Doc.

The Palestinians get East Jerusalem, and no-one gets any "extras"
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The Pre 1967 borders are what everyone is stuck with whether they like that or not.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/borders.html

The politicals on both sides are playing to their respective audiences, but the borders are immovable.

The borders HAVE to be immovable, there's too many eejits on both sides for anything else to be practicable
 

bushman
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They really don't have a choice, and in the long run neither will Israel.

Those lines were drawn years ago.
It won't stop either side squawking about it, but because it's impossible to please either side in Palestine/Israel the only thing the international community can do is stick rigidly to the internationally demarcated borders at the UN.
 

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