More than 100 European Union parliament members say they object to a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood in September.
In a letter addressed to EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, parliamentarians from several states and from across the political spectrum assert that one-sided Palestinian moves will push peace further away.
The signatories say that they are “all united in the conviction that only a negotiated two-state solution can end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
“Past agreements between the parties and international mediators clearly reject unilateral actions,” the letter notes, urging the sides to resume negotiations immediately and stressing that “both sides will have to make difficult compromises to reach an agreement.”
Only an immediate return to negotiations – for which pressure must be exerted on all parties – can save the peace process,” the letter reads.
American pessimism
However, the Obama administration’s efforts to re-launch stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks this summer are going nowhere, and a looming UN confrontation could further set back prospects for a negotiated settlement any time soon.
Senior officials from the international group of Mideast peacemakers – the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia – planned to meet Monday in Washington. The goal is to revive the process by increasing pressure on the two sides to return to talks.
The mediators “will come together and will compare notes about where we are and plot a course forward,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Friday.
Yet one US official privately described the overall atmosphere surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian peace process as gloomy. A second termed it depressing. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential meetings.
The deadlock had split the United States and its allies about how to restart the talks. Until last week, the US had resisted European calls for the meeting Monday, believing there was nothing new to discuss, officials said.
The US concluded that it wasn’t worth continuing to fight the meeting despite the poor prospects for success, officials said.
The half-hearted attempts to “deal with” what the EU sees as the “Mideast crisis” are the result of several pressure points reverberating across the globe. The weakening domestic economic trend that has struck many European nations continues to claim most of their attention. Also, the cultural impact of Islamism on the EU host countries has created a chain reaction against the customs of Muslim immigrants. Belgium passed a law banning the wearing of the Burqa in public earlier this year. Soon similar legislation was introduced in France.
Prior to this In October of 2009, the Lega Nord party, which is a part of the governing coalition in Italy, also called for banning the burqa. Before that in November of 2008, a law banning students from wearing the burqa was enacted in Holland. A few years earlier a similar law was introduced in some areas of Germany. Currently introduction of similar limitations is discussed in Great Britain, Austria, Denmark, and Switzerland, which is not a member of the EU. On November 29, 2009 the majority of citizens voted to ban minarets construction. The timing of the Palestinians isn’t in their favor. As Abba Eban said, “they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.”
They will use any and every deception to not recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
It is all about taqiyya, a fundamental tenet of Islam.
Deception is their primary nature. That is why it is said time after time to eternity:”They CANNOT be trusted”.
It’s all so pious, for the Europeans to tell other countries how to solve their own problems. Europe solved most of its own problems by starting two world wars, and killing tens of millions of people.