Driving in the car yesterday (November 25, 2007) with my wife Nina, we shared our suspicions that an agreed text for Annapolis had already been written, but for public suspense purposes, and to keep the media busy, we were told over and over that no agreement was reached.
A few hours ago we found out that we were right and we were all once again being lied to (sorry, misled…) by our, quite literaly fearless, so-called leaders.
The joint statement text was worked out and agreed upon days ago, and was held back just for the "effect factor," while the media talked over and over about the "lack of agreement" rather than the teachers strike, the price of bread, the government failure to stop the Qassam rockets from Gaza, the Winograd Commission or, heaven forbid, Olmert's personal legal problems (not to speak of those of his former minister of finance, former minister of justice, former minister of defense...etc…)
Now that we have read and heard the text of the joint statement – we can see how far our leaders will go to mislead us. For days, Foreign Minister Livni talked again and again about how she was insisting on recognition of Israel as a "Jewish State."
The fact that this was exactly the formulation of UN Resolution 181 of November 29, 1947, David Ben-Gurion's Declaration of Independence on May 15, 1948, and the de-facto recognition by U.S. President Harry Truman that same day (it was still the 14th in Washington, DC) is somehow lost on our leaders and ignored by our media pundits who are flying high on the 1990's carpet of euphoria.
Transcript of Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel (1948)
This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has been proclaimed in
Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional Government
thereof.
The United States recognizes the provision government as the de
facto authority of the new State of Israel.
Harry Truman
Approved, May 14, 1948.
You will notice that in the original, typed text, Truman was to sign, the words "Jewish state" were used twice. Only after hearing that Ben-Gurion had given that Jewish state a name, was the second reference to "Jewish state" scratched out by hand and replaced with "State of Israel."
Now, 59 years later, our leaders think that being recognized as a Jewish state by a group of terrorist leaders is something to bring home as an achievement?
In 1948, no one recognized a democratic state or a "state of all her citizens." The United States, the United Nations and the majority of the world applauded the creation of a "Jewish State," and that state took on an historic name – The State of Israel - that was meaningful to Jews and Gentiles the world over.
Now, 59 years later, we are fighting amongst ourselves for whether Israel is Jewish state or not?
Just a thought from the hills of Judea…
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Joint Israeli-Palestinian Statement
Read by President George Bush at Annapolis Conference
(Source: The White House)
"The representatives of the government of the State of Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization, represented respectively by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas, in his capacity as chairman of the PLO executive committee and president of the Palestinian Authority, have convened in Annapolis, Maryland, under the auspices of President George W. Bush of the United States of America, and with the support of the participants of this international conference having concluded the following joint understanding:
"We express our determination to bring an end to bloodshed, suffering and decades of conflict between our peoples; to usher in a new era of peace, based on freedom, security, justice, dignity, respect and mutual recognition; to propagate a culture of peace and nonviolence; to confront terrorism and incitement, whether committed by Palestinians or Israelis.
"In furtherance of the goal of two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security, we agree to immediately launch good-faith bilateral in order to conclude a peace treaty resolving all outstanding issues, including all core issues without exception, as specified in previous agreements.
"We agree to engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations and shall make every effort to conclude an agreement before the end of 2008.
"For this purpose, a steering committee led jointly be the head of the delegation of each party will meet continuously as agreed.
The steering committee will develop a joint work plan and establish and oversee the work of negotiations teams to address all issues, to be headed by one lead representative from each party.
The first session of the steering committee will be held on 12 December, 2007.
"President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert will continue to meet on a biweekly basis to follow up the negotiations in order to offer all necessary assistance for their advancement.
"The parties also commit to immediately implement their respective obligations under the performance-based road map to a permanent two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict issued by the quartet on 30 April, 2003" - this is called the road map - "and agree to form an American, Palestinian and Israeli mechanism led by the United States to follow up on the implementation of the road map.
"The parties further commit to continue the implementation of the ongoing obligations of the road map until they reach a peace treaty. The United States will monitor and judge the fulfillment of the commitment of both sides of the road map.
"Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, implementation of the future peace treaty will be subject to the implementation of the road map, as judged by the United States."
