Permanent Truce in Gaza?

I usually get a similar auto-response when emailing a member of our delegation. An actual email answering (sometimes) my question then follows.

What really burns me is when I write to a Senator or Congressman who doesn't represent me. The response is a polite "fuck off and bug your own guy." :-))

well, well, well....

i am not going to brag, but i pretty much called it...

and who the fuck is still confused at all about why there is conflict in the region??? is there any doubt why there are rockets being launched into israel?

netanyahu is a pig. a greedy, war mongering, pig.

this is why there is, and there will never be peace....

Israel Announces Massive West Bank Land Grab

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/31/israel-west-bank_n_5745498.html

JERUSALEM, Aug 31 (Reuters) - Israel announced on Sunday a land appropriation in the occupied West Bank that an anti-settlement group termed the biggest in 30 years, drawing Palestinian condemnation and a U.S. rebuke.

Some 400 hectares (988 acres) in the Etzion Jewish settlement bloc near Bethlehem were declared "state land, on the instructions of the political echelon" by the military-run Civil Administration.



"We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision," a State Department official said in Washington, calling the move "counterproductive" to efforts to achieve a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel Radio said the step was taken in response to the kidnapping and killing of three Jewish teens by Hamas militants in the area in June.

Tensions stoked by the incident quickly spread to Israel's border with Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, and the two sides engaged in a seven-week war that ended on Tuesday with an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

The notice published on Sunday by the Israeli military gave no reason for the land appropriation decision.

Peace Now, which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, territory the Palestinians seek for a state, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where 10 families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement.

Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as "Gevaot", has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year, the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site.

Peace Now said the land seizure was the largest announced by Israel in the West Bank since the 1980s and that anyone with ownership claims had 45 days to appeal. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them.

Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza," Abu Rdainah said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu broke off U.S.-brokered peace talks with Abbas in April after the Palestinian leader reached a reconciliation deal with Hamas, the Islamist movement that dominates the Gaza Strip.

In a series of remarks after an open-ended ceasefire halted the Gaza war, Netanyahu repeated his position that Abbas would have to sever his alliance with Hamas for a peace process with Israel to resume.

The administration of President Barack Obama, who has been at odds with Netanyahu over settlements since taking office in 2009, pushed back against the land decision. It was the latest point of contention between Washington and its top Middle East ally Israel, which also differ over Iran nuclear talks.

"We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity," said the State Department official, who declined to be identified.

"This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue, is counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians," the official said.

After the collapse of the last round of U.S.-brokered peace talks, U.S. officials cited settlement construction as one of the main reasons for the breakdown, while also faulting the Palestinians for signing a series of international treaties and conventions.

Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighborhood of an existing one, Alon Shvut, several km (miles) down the road.

Some 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory that the Jewish state captured in the 1967 Middle East war. (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller in Jerusalem, Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrea Ricci)

Step aside and let Iran have nukes. Only check against israeli aggression there will be.

Not a 100% fit to this thread, but did not want to start a new one.
More stories like this will lead to a permanent truce.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4566485,00.html

Israeli, Palestinian children play for peace

Peres Center opens school year with launch of its annual 'sports for peace' program, bringing together Gaza-border children with West Bank kids.

Matan Tzuri
Published: 09.01.14, 18:43 / Israel Culture

Israeli children from Sderot and Gaza-border communities came together with Palestinian kids from the West Bank on Monday for the opening ceremony of the Peres Center for Peace's annual after-school soccer program.

"You will spread word of the games, of peace instead of confrontations," said former president Shimon Peres. "Everyone loves to play soccer, regardless of religion or nationality. You need peace, and you will carry the message of peace."

Some 80 students, Israelis and Palestinians, arrived for the season's first training session – after the end of the 50-day-long Operation Protective Edge, when the kids of Sderot and other southern communities were forced to either stay near shelter or leave to other parts of the country.

They were met by Palestinian children from Jerico and Yatta, south of Mt. Hebron. The Twinned Peace Sports Schools (TPSS) soccer program includes boys and girls age nine to 12.

The coach of the Yatta squad, Ahmed al-Jericho, said: "Our children think only of soccer, they love to play soccer – they don't care if it is with Jews or non-Jews. They are kids and all they care about is leaving together in peace, that's what they want."

The Palestinian coach emphasized that "they love to meet Israeli children. It challenges them to play against them, and there is something very special, very heart-warming, about this – especially now, after everything Israel has been through."

Roi, one of the kids from Sderot said he was a long-time participant of the program. "I have been taking part in this project for a while and I love playing with Palestinian kids who are soccer fiends just like us, it creates a bond between us."

The director-general of the Peres Center, Efrat Duvdevani, said that the center "sees the importance of strengthening and encouraging the message of peace through sports. Sport is a common language the bridges gaps and lowers barriers."

Alon Shuster, the head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, participated in the ceremony for the first training session, along with the Israeli and Palestinian coaches.

benjs said:

rafie said:

Not a 100% fit to this thread, but did not want to start a new one.
More stories like this will lead to a permanent truce.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4566485,00.html

Israeli, Palestinian children play for peace

Peres Center opens school year with launch of its annual 'sports for peace' program, bringing together Gaza-border children with West Bank kids.

Matan Tzuri
Published: 09.01.14, 18:43 / Israel Culture

Israeli children from Sderot and Gaza-border communities came together with Palestinian kids from the West Bank on Monday for the opening ceremony of the Peres Center for Peace's annual after-school soccer program.

"You will spread word of the games, of peace instead of confrontations," said former president Shimon Peres. "Everyone loves to play soccer, regardless of religion or nationality. You need peace, and you will carry the message of peace."

Some 80 students, Israelis and Palestinians, arrived for the season's first training session – after the end of the 50-day-long Operation Protective Edge, when the kids of Sderot and other southern communities were forced to either stay near shelter or leave to other parts of the country.

They were met by Palestinian children from Jerico and Yatta, south of Mt. Hebron. The Twinned Peace Sports Schools (TPSS) soccer program includes boys and girls age nine to 12.

The coach of the Yatta squad, Ahmed al-Jericho, said: "Our children think only of soccer, they love to play soccer – they don't care if it is with Jews or non-Jews. They are kids and all they care about is leaving together in peace, that's what they want."

The Palestinian coach emphasized that "they love to meet Israeli children. It challenges them to play against them, and there is something very special, very heart-warming, about this – especially now, after everything Israel has been through."

Roi, one of the kids from Sderot said he was a long-time participant of the program. "I have been taking part in this project for a while and I love playing with Palestinian kids who are soccer fiends just like us, it creates a bond between us."

The director-general of the Peres Center, Efrat Duvdevani, said that the center "sees the importance of strengthening and encouraging the message of peace through sports. Sport is a common language the bridges gaps and lowers barriers."

Alon Shuster, the head of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council, participated in the ceremony for the first training session, along with the Israeli and Palestinian coaches.

Rafie,

It's nice to hear that there are programs like this, but to what end? Kids will be kids and love life in their blissful ignorant states, but young adults will continue to demonize the people on the opposite sides of the blockades, because for their entire lives, they will have only known war. I'd like to hear about peace programs with a focus on impartial education for young adults and up - the people who have the interest and wherewithal to learn more about the history of the region, the rights to vote on new government to bring upon new policy, and the audacity to question the preconceptions they were raised with.

The Palestinian coach emphasized that "they love to meet Israeli children. It challenges them to play against them, and there is something very special, very heart-warming, about this – especially now, after everything Israel has been through."
because yes, Israel went through a lot.

So...don't even bother then? It's funny (well, odd) how other programs working toward children being open to others of all kinds, to eat healthy, on and on and etc....are embraced.

This, something with potential for some small bit of benefit, is met with cynicism and defeatism?

And are they playing together or praying together? Not sure if your typo was a Freudian slip, gimme.

Big difference though.

It was also to you, benjs, and no apologies necessary!

I'm all for the bigger fish, but why toss aside (or minimize) the smaller ones along the way?

Maybe it's just some fun time for them; god knows they both need it.