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Israel/Palestine: More on the Sham Peace Talks - by Stephen Lendman
On and off for the past 35 years, so-called "peace" talks repeatedly have been stillborn from inception, a grand illusion masking an Israeli/Washington partnership intolerant of peace, demanding unconditional surrender, nothing less, the de facto Oslo result, one-sided for Israel, Palestinians given nothing to this day, enduring worse conditions now than then.
What chance then now for peace with no legitimate partner, its democratically government excluded, a coup d'etat president 20 months past his term's expiration representing them, and an Arab hating Israeli Prime Minister once calling it "a waste of time."
In addition, the Israeli Lobby controls Washington's Middle East agenda, unwilling to grant Palestinians any rights. As a result, they endure daily violence, not stopping even as a show of good faith, and Netanyahu's announced settlement freeze was bogus. Construction slowed, but never stopped. Some process. Imagine what's coming. More of the same, not an equitable just peace. The charade goes on, a spectacular deception, Palestinians to be blamed when it fails for not negotiating in good faith.
Here's more. From August 26 - September 1, Israeli forces made 37 incursions into West Bank communities and another into Gaza, arresting 15 Palestinians, including three children. Four paramedics and two human rights workers were also detained, and six Palestinian civilians and an international activist injured. In addition, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers and shepherds in Hebron and Salfit as well as other civilians and their cars on main roads, acting lawlessly with impunity as they always do, authorities practically incentivizing them to commit violence and destructive acts.
These incidents aren't isolated. They occur daily in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, women and children treated like men, none of it reported in America and most Western media sources. However, after four retaliatory Palestinian attacks killed four Israeli settlers, it made headlines, New York Times writers Israel Kershner and Mark Landler as one-sided as others headlining, "Killing of Israeli Settlers Rattles Leaders," calling it disruptive on the eve of peace talks, saying:
"The military wing of Hamas, the Islamic group," carried out the attack, quoting Netanyahu "condemn(ing) the 'atrocious murder,' which Israeli officials said seemed calculated by Hamas to upset the negotiations," a White House statement calling the attackers "enemies of peace."
However when Israeli settlers attack nonviolent Palestinians, they're never called militants, the Jewish group, or "enemies of peace." Their repeated offenses aren't even reported, even when deaths occur, nor are daily IDF incursions and horrific crimes. They slip quietly under the radar, never when Jews are harmed.
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