Israeli PM Plans to Move Forward on Peace Process Despite Continued Rocket Fire from Gaza
PA President Abbas Expected in Washington Next Week

The Israel Project
May 21, 2009

http://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/954/israeli-pm-plans-to-move-forward-on-peace-process

As President Obama prepares to meet in Washington next week with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas[1] and then travel to Egypt in June to deliver a major speech to the Muslim world,[2] Iran-backed terrorist groups in Gaza continued to fire rockets, mortars and missiles at Israel as recently as Monday (May 19).[3]

Since Obama's inauguration Jan. 20, terrorists in Gaza have fired more than 200[4] rockets, mortars and missiles at Israel – and a total of more than 6,700[5] since Israel handed all of Gaza over to the Palestinians four years ago in hopes of paving the way for an independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace next to Israel. Since the start of 2009, Israel has been hit by a total of 685 rockets and mortars.[6]

On May 19, a rocket launched by terrorists in Gaza hit a home in Sderot[7] - the southern Israeli city that has born the brunt of Gaza's terrorist attacks. The attacks have killed 10 civilians, wounded more than 780 and traumatized thousands of others.[8] The only remaining Israeli in Gaza is Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit who was abducted from Israel on June 25, 2006 by Hamas in a bloody cross-border raid in which the terrorists killed two Israel Defense Force soldiers and wounded four others.[9]

Iran-backed Hamas continue to promote a culture of hate that permeates Palestinian culture, particularly in Palestinian schools, Gaza's Hamas-ruled Palestinian government and Palestinian media. For example:

In Palestinian classrooms, schoolchildren are taught that Israelis are the enemy and Palestinian TV regularly airs programs geared towards children that encourage them to kill Israelis and thus achieve martyrdom.[10] Hamas's own charter calls for killing Jews. It states, "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!" [11] "The indoctrination campaign must involve ulama, educators, teachers and information and media experts, as well as all intellectuals, especially the young people and the sheikhs of Islamic movements. It is [also] necessary to introduce essential changes in the curricula, in order to eliminate the influences of the intellectual invasion which were inflicted upon them by the Orientalists and the missionaries."[12] Just last month, Abbas rejected the idea of a Jewish State and recently met with Palestinian youth leaders where he held up a framed map of Palestine – clearly labeled in English - that covered all of Israel. "I say this clearly: I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will," Abbas said during the meeting in Ramallah. The photo of Abbas holding the map appeared on the front pages of both Palestinian Authority daily newspapers.[13] On May 7, the Palestinian government's ambassador to Lebanon, Abbas Zaki, said on ANB TV, "With the two-state solution, in my opinion, Israel will collapse, because if they get out of Jerusalem, what will become of all the talk about the Promised Land and the Chosen People? What will become of all the sacrifices they made - just to be told to leave? They consider Jerusalem to have a spiritual status. The Jews consider Judea and Samaria to be their historic dream. If the Jews leave those places, the Zionist idea will begin to collapse. It will regress of its own accord. Then we will move forward."[14]

Obama is expected to meet with Abbas on May 28.[15] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was originally scheduled to come to Washington May 26 but on May 20 canceled his visit due to the death of his 12-year-old grandson.[16] Obama is scheduled to deliver a speech directed at the Muslim world on June 4.[17]

On Monday (May 18), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Obama and vowed to move forward on the peace process.

"I share with you very much the desire to move the peace process forward," Netanyahu said at the White House following a more than three-hour meeting with Obama. "And I want to start peace negotiations with the Palestinians immediately. I would like to broaden the circle of peace to include others in the Arab world…I want to make it clear that we don't want to govern the Palestinians. We want to live in peace with them."[18]

In 2003, Israel agreed to implement the Roadmap to Peace,[19] a performance-based document that provides a framework for a two-state solution and calls for an end to Palestinian violence and terrorism - including requiring all Palestinian institutions to end incitement against Israel.[20] Despite the Palestinians' failure to end incitement, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon both have agreed to honor the Roadmap.[21]

Footnotes:

[1] "Egyptian President Mubarak cancels US trip," BBC News, May 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8060406.stm

[2] Cloud, David S., "Obama to address Muslims in Egypt," Politico, May 8, 2009, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22272.html

[3] "Israel stages air raids after Gaza rocket attack," Agence France-Presse, May 19, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gaFZkhlpzDZVmZpSY9VrA2Neo8mw

[4] "Israel air raid on Gaza tunnels after mortar fire," AFP, May 6, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gRFGAbpUrLry0X5KPIBMr7peI7zQ

[5] IDF Spokesperson's Unit, Dec. 19, 2008

[6] "Rocket hits home in Sderot, IAF targets Gaza terrorist sites," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 19, 2009, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism+Obstacle+to+Peace/Hamas+war+against+Israel/Rocket_
hits_home_Sderot_IAF_targets_Gaza_terror_sites_19-May-2009.htm

[7] "Israel stages air raids after Gaza rocket attack," Agence France-Presse, May 19, 2009, http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gaFZkhlpzDZVmZpSY9VrA2Neo8mw

[8] Data relayed to The Israel Project by IDF Spokesman's Division, Dec 18, 2008; Berger, Ronny and Gelkopf, Marc, "The Impact of the Ongoing Traumatic Stress Conditions on Sderot," Natal, The Israel Trauma Center for Victims of Terror and War in cooperation with Dr. Mina Tzemach, Director, Dachaf Public Opinion Research Institute, Oct. 2007

[9] Harel, Amos; Issacharoff, Avi; Haaretz Service and Reuters, "Two soldiers killed, one missing in raid on IDF post," Haaretz, June 25, 2006, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/730994.html

[10] Marcus, Itamar and Crook, Barbara, "Hamas TV Mickey Mouse beaten to death by Israeli - becomes Martyr in final episode," Palestinian Media Watch, July 1, 2007, http://pmw.org.il/bulletins_jul2007.htm#b010707; "PMW Video Archives: Hamas in its Own Words," Palestinian Media Watch, January 2006-2007, http://www.pmw.org.il/tv-hamas.htm; Groiss, Arnon, "Jews, Israel and Peace in the Palestinian Authority Textbooks: The New Textbooks for Grades 5 and 10," Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace, June 2005

[11] "Hamas Charter (1988)," The Jerusalem Fund, accessed May 13, 2009, http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/documents/charter.html

[12] "The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas," MEMRI.org, Special Dispatch - No. 1092, Feb. 14. 2006, http://www.memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD109206

[13] Marcus, Itamar and Crook, Barbara, "Mahmoud Abbas: 'I do not accept the Jewish State, call it what you will'," Palestinian Media Watch, April 28, 2009, http://www.pmw.org.il/Bulletins_Apr2009.htm#b280409

[14] Palestinian Ambassador to Lebanon Abbas Zaki: Two-State Solution Will Lead to the Collapse of Israel," MEMRI: Special Dispatch - No. 2358: May 14, 2009, http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP235809

[15] "Egyptian President Mubarak cancels US trip," BBC News, May 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8060406.stm

[16] "Egyptian President Mubarak cancels US trip," BBC News, May 20, 2009, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8060406.stm

[17] Wilson, Scott and Kornblut, Anne, "Obama Picks Egypt as Speech Venue," The Washington Post, May 9, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/08/AR2009050803843.html

[18] "Remarks by Presdient Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel," The White House – Office of the Press Secretary, May 18, 2009, http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-President-Obama-and-Israeli-Prime-Minister-Netanyahu-in-press-availability/

[19] "Government meeting about the Prime Minister's statement on the Roadmap," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, May 25, 2003, http://www.mfa.gov.il/mfa/government/communiques/2003/goverment%20meeting%20about%20the%20prime%20minister-s%20state; Keinon, Herb, "FM Lieberman off to Europe," The Jerusalem Post, May 3, 2009, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?id=1239710851038&p
agename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[20] "A Performance-Based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, April 30, 2003, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/A+Performance-Based+Roadmap+to+a+Permanent+Two-Sta.htm

[21] Keinon, Herb, "FM Lieberman off to Europe," The Jerusalem Post, May 3, 2009, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1239710851038&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

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