NEWS: Israeli-Palestinian Truce! Intafada Over?

Negotiators for the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority have worked out a truce. The Palestinians have agreed to end the Intafada, and apparently this means that the Israeli government would be less likely to respond with 'heavy handed' military action. Both sides seem to have confirmed it. They will announce it officially at Tuesday's Middle East conference in Egypt.



Incredible. After the long, long, uprising, started by Arafat, the two sides have agreed to a truce. Not peace, of course, but a truce. I, personally, was very wary of Abu Abbas. But he's sent some security forces after some Palestinian terrorists, overseen a general law that restricts gun ownership amoung the Palestinains, criticized the terror tactics, and now, apparently, agreed to a truce.

This is interesting to take into the wider context of the unilateral Israeli withdrawl under Sharon, the US Roadmap for Peace, the Iraqi elections, and the upcomming Egyptian conference on the middle east.

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[edit on 7-2-2005 by Banshee]

It seems that so far Abu Abbas has made all the right moves, but it remains to be seen where his true interests lie. I can't help but think this is all a show in order to allow Sharon to go ahead with his withdrawl plans for the Gaza strip and parts of the West Bank. Once those areas have been settled by Palestinians it's likely the intafada will start right back up. I can't see the Palestinian militants backing down until all of Israel is abolished. This conflict cannot be solved by simply giving back the Palestians parts of their original land, though it is a start.

-raven

I wouldn't break out the champagne just yet....

Still, it is a step in the right direction, and welcome news in these times....

Any truce is better than no truce.
But they have been there before, at best it brings some "normality" to peoples lives, but in reality its just a good time to rearm and rebuild.

There are too many agendas by too many groups, Hesbollah, Iran, Syria, PLO, Hamas etc, in the region for it to be so easy to bring peace to Israel.


[edit on 8-2-2005 by Netchicken]

I don't think that this affects the pullout from the west bank, which is only a pullout of settlements and the erection of a defensive wall, the west bank, if nothing else occurs, will still remain occupied under sharon's plan.

Perhaps this more than anything else motivated Abbas to start working something out while its still possible.

Either way, this is the end of the Intafada, that four year long uprising. Nothing preventing another one from occuring of course, but its certainly a good sign. Arafat saw no reason to end the uprising which he initiated, but, for whatever the reason, abbas does see sense in ending. Thats, in a very real sense, a major breakthrough, a four year advancement.

as posted by Nygdan
Israeli-Palestinian Truce! Intafada Over?

Nope, merely on hold.
This is an encouraging sign though. The problem has always been how long will it last.




seekerof

Only to dare to dream, I will be very skeptical of this "truce" this two nations will never be at peace, is not in their make over and will never be, this is more than just a fight for land but a religious fight that will never find relief until one group decimates the other.

this will give the 2012 fanatics more ammunition due to the bible prophecy of 7 years of peace. Interesting year for this to happen.

While this is good news, we've heard this song and dance before. A truce is made, Hamas and others ignore it, Israel responds, a truce is made, terrorists regroup and strike, Israel responds, a truce is....You get the idea.

Originally posted by Seekerof
Nope, merely on hold.

and

junglejake
A truce is made, Hamas and others ignore it, Israel responds, a truce is made, terrorists regroup and strike, Israel responds, a truce is

A truce ends the intafada tho. A new one can start, but, the intafada itself was a 'breaking' of the truce, there never was a peace treaty between the palestinians and israelis. So a truce means that the intafada, declared by arafat four years ago, is in fact over. A new one can start at any moment of course, but for the past four years there's been an official, state sponsored uprising against israel. Now attacks on israel do not having the backing of the state itself, nor is the state headed by the leader of one of hte terror groups and a very active member of them too.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that this is not a peace treaty between the two states, and that its nothing more than the palestinian authority saying 'that rebellion and violence we called for four years ago, we are not calling for it anymore', but still, in that place ,hell thats actual movement.

marg6043
is not in their make over and will never be

But they've been at peace before. The palestinians, and the israelis (the natives anyway) lived in relative peace in the past. So much so that they've regularly interbred and mixed their populations. They've been at peace in the past, inside of the same state none the less. Surely they can accomplish peace living in their own neighboring states.

Yes they were at peace before the Arabs move to the region and took over of the last of the true Palestinians left behind, yes they did shared a common back ground, no any more.

As now the Palestinian nation is Arab.

Also, to those who don't know, Israel land was owned by England and given to them. The Jews didn't invade and steal anyones land, the land was bought by England and later given to the Jews. So, who wants to bet how long this lasts before the terrorist nutjobs attack? I give it under a month.

But wait ...

How could all this have happened?

Bush is president and Condi Rice is Secretary of State.

Liberals will hate this news for sure - because it will appear to make Bush look good - even though it may mean that thousands of innocent lives will be spared on both sides.

There those phony, hypocritical libs go again - claiming to be for peace and for the victims, etc. while in reality putting their own agendas ahead of those they claim to look out for.


[edit on 2/7/2005 by centurion1211]

Ok what are the odds
who has the pool?

put $20 on israel screwing it up within 2 weeks...

but let me put a side bet of $20 on a independant palestinian group attack within one month... if the israel bet loses...

i jest because i care... i hope i lose on both counts...

pray people...pray that it sticks... wouldn't you like to get news about something ELSE for awhile...

and centurion... i have read your posts... you were born with all brain parts included...so WTF kind of ignorant comment is that about liberals not being happy about peace...
first off...I dont remember Bush being the one signing the peace accord...
I believe it involved a jew and a palestinian...

And why would you think that liberals can be separated by such a grey line?
stop living in the election... and stop seeing everything as red or blue...

yes... libs love their children too...

Originally posted by Nygdan
I, personally, was very wary of Abu Abbas.

its not abu abbas. its mahmoud abbas. I think you mean Abu Mazen. Abu in arabic means 'father of'. Abu Mazen was mahmoud abbas's code name in the resistance. Arafat's code name was Abu Hamaar. In arabic, a man's first born son and his own name is interchangeable. That is, if a man's first born son is named mazen, his name and Abu Mazen are interchangeable. Of course, since it was code, Abbas's son was not really named mazen.

Originally posted by junglejake
While this is good news, we've heard this song and dance before. A truce is made, Hamas and others ignore it, Israel responds, a truce is made, terrorists regroup and strike, Israel responds, a truce is....You get the idea.

yeah...because its always the palestinians that are the aggressors, and Israel is merely defending itself.

Oh yes General, we all know how many times Israel just got a bug up its ass and attacked the palestinians for no reason. I can't even count them on one hand cause you can't count to 0 on a hand.

Edit BTW, I hope my bet to is never won. EIther that or Hamas attacks again and finally Israel takes over the middle east and the war on terror is over.

[edit on 7-2-2005 by James the Lesser]

My bet is that Arab terrorists try to screw this up for the Palestinians and after a great deal of kicking and screaming at their own people behind closed doors, Sharon and Abbas will be able to make the truce hold.

Palestine will eventually get a state, but the time it will take to come to blows over Jerusalem will be clocked with an egg timer.
If I had to guess I'd say that the future holds a Palestinian state in the West Bank with international control of Jerusalem.

If you allow for prophecy/apocalyptic beliefs, I expect it to take the following turns.
Jews will be allowed to pray on the temple mount again, resulting in a military conflict over Jerusalem. Enemy fighters will hold up in Al Aqsa and Israel will not refrain from destroying it, but will claim that the militants inside were responsible. The confrontation in Najaf was just leading up to this.
Israel will rebuild Solomon's temple, but to obtain peace an international leader will convince them to re-internationalize control of Jerusalem. Non-Jews will be allowed to enter the temple beyond "the court of the gentiles" which will prompt violence from Jewish fundamentalists eventually, and there goes the neighborhood- Armageddon is on with Turkish, Iranian, Russian, and other forces entering Israel through the Golan Heights, moving West of Lake Tiberias through the Plain of Megiddo (Armageddon) which is where you would have to pass through if you wanted to take the route South to Jenin and into the West Bank from Syria.

Originally posted by LazarusTheLong
Ok what are the odds
who has the pool?

put $20 on israel screwing it up within 2 weeks...

Yeah, Isreal will have a schoolbus blown up by some innocent suicide bomber, ask the Palestinians to do something, they'll be complacant, so Israel will respond to their children being attacked. Those damn Jews

On a serious note, this peace is really n the Palestinians. Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other groups are loosly tied. Though they may agree to the truce, individuals within the group may still act alone. Hamas's goal is not a Palestinian state, it's the eradication of Israel. They have nothing to gain in this truce. So they may decide to attack, or a radical withing their already radical movement may decide to act alone. Then the Palestinians need to step up to the plate.

If they refuse to go after the planners and groups sponsoring such an attack, Israel will. We told them it was ok by destroying the Taliban and Saddam's regime. And Israel has every right to retaliate against criminals who murder children.

Yet, if the Palestinians get the guys and throw em in jail, execute them, or whatever punishment they come up with, Isreal will be able to leave them alone. If Isreal retaliates after the Palestinians nab the bad guys, then Israel is 100% at fault.

Originally posted by James the Lesser
Oh yes General, we all know how many times Israel just got a bug up its ass and attacked the palestinians for no reason. I can't even count them on one hand cause you can't count to 0 on a hand.

Edit BTW, I hope my bet to is never won. EIther that or Hamas attacks again and finally Israel takes over the middle east and the war on terror is over.

[edit on 7-2-2005 by James the Lesser]

The original blow was struck by the Israelis. The original Zionist settlers, over a hundred years ago, are the first and therefore most blameworthy aggressors in this terrible situation. Even you, james, cannot deny that Israeli responses to terrorist attacks by the palestinians is often over the top and vicious. Remember the Jenin massacre? Remember Sabra and Shatila? The body count figures at the start of the intifida were 25 palestinians to 1 israeli killed. Lately, it is closer to 5 to 1. More israelis are dying than before, but the casualties are still much heavier on the palestinian side.

Jewish fundamentalism is at an all time high in Israel at the moment, and Sharon's minute compromise is even too much for the hardline Rabbis to take.

[edit on 8-2-2005 by General Zapata]