Tuesday December 11, 2012, 6:54 am
No surprises there! Imagine the outcry if the President of France openly advocated the overthrow of Yemen, for example.....

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 9:15 am

Actually, even Hamas has been open to negotiations for a few years now. Should Israel want peace than the full support of the International Community would welcome that. What is most in contention here are the continued expansion of Israeli settlements into Palestinian lands,and forced eviction of those Palestinians from their homes. No one would want that in their own country.

I also think that Netanyahu has a credibility problem with the International community, putting aside the rhetoric of Hamas, (and that is the only thing he addresses) is his own attitudes do not indicate a desire for peace. For how many years can people of the International community turn a blind eye to treatment of the people of Palestine and ignore the very basic lack of acknowledgement that all humans every where are fully entitled to human rights.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 3:50 pm
It is funny that people make mention of settlements being the stumbling point to peace. Israel halted all building for several years per the request by the USA and during that time the Palestinians refused to meet. When Israel signed a peace accord with the Arafat and pulled out of Gaza they moved thousands of Israelis out of their homes and left it to the PA to administer.

They left Gaza with factories and farms intact and doing business. So if the Palestinians really wanted a peace treaty they could have had one years ago. As to settlements, It has been shown that Israel will give up settlements where necessary.

The Hamas are not open to negotiations as they have not changed their charter by one word. Their avowed aim is the total destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews.

"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! This will not apply to the Gharqad, which is a Jewish tree"

There is even more of that stuff throughout their document. So let us not forget that "Actually" Hamas is not open to negotiations.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 4:03 pm
Thanks for the post.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 4:34 pm
Noted. Ira, respectfully, like it or not, it is widely recognized that the settlements are in violation of international law. You say it is funny, but I don't think the international community (including the US, at least this administration, thankfully) thinks that building settlements is trivial or funny. Looking back is nowhere....in life one must move forward. Hamas is at the negotiating table as we speak...they are open to negotiations. When Israel announces plans for building settlements, it spits in the face of international law....and being "open to negotiations.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 4:39 pm
Kit....very well spoken! When you announce that you are going to raze a building, know that there are innocent civilians in that building as well as a suspected terrorist, and then go ahead and raze it, killing not only the suspected terrorist but innocent civilians as well, then you can hardly claim the higher ground over the terrorists. Israel has advocated that strategy for years. With all due respect, I don't see how that leaves them a lot of wiggle room from their enemy.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 5:38 pm
Noted. Just reading this, Netanyahu sounds like a bully, so obviously, international support is waning. I thought Kit's comment was excellent, too.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 6:16 pm
Netanyahu is the Bin Laden of Israel!

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 8:31 pm
Deafening silence? Perhaps Netanyahu has had a taste of how the Palestinians feel, 365 days a year, for 64 years? Afterall, it was the international community that created the problem, time for them to repair and rehab.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 8:54 pm
""""The reason why the Palestinians avoided negotiations for the past four years is a very simple one. They avoided negotiations because they were willing to take concessions from Israel but they were not prepared to make concessions to Israel," he said.'''

Who can ever forget Saeb Erekat, Pal. negotiator in peace talks, whining after the wikileaks "Palestine Papers" were published, "What more can we give them?" After allegedly agreeing to giving up refugee right of return, agreeing to 18% of the Palestine Mandate for a Palestinian mini-state.

The magic man has been busted, the curtain at Oz has been drawn back to reveal.....the transparency demanded of Palestinians and the ambiguity privilege for Israeli.

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 9:05 pm
I definitely agree with Netanyahu, the world has been displaying double standards that advantaged Israel since it's inception. What a spoiled brat, stamping his feet and making demands; whining about how bad he wants to go back to good old negotiating. The trouble is Israel never intends to do what it promises, it is like reading US history about negotiations with the Native Americans.
Treaty after treaty, demanded by US, broken, abandoned, neglected and/or ignored, while the First Nations had no choice but to submit or die.

Is that how we want our world?

@Netanyahu, we're all afraid. None of us has fool proof security, it's an impossibility. You've become so 'aggressively defensive' that the world needs to be safe from YOU. Where is your therapist gone?

Tuesday December 11, 2012, 9:30 pm
Thanks Cal for the link to the article by Josef Federman. Regarding the situation between Israel, Hamas and the PA I must agree with the comments of Kit and Thomas. Read and noted.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 12:23 am
Thanks for the article Cal - can't add anymore it's already been said by others

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 3:05 am
If he takes a look in the mirror,he'll see who has double standards.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 3:22 am
Netanyahu has nothing to boast about. A man of goodwill would have managed the situation differently.
What is the use of all that military build up while at the same time provoking the Palestinians until they have no choice but to attack? That's not a desire for peace, it's more like vainglory. What he is doing is actually endangering the people living in Israel.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 6:08 am
Thanks

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 7:09 am
Hamas is open to negotiations? To achieve which goal? To create another Palestinian Arab state that will absorb Arab refugees and will live peacefully next to Israel? Of course, not and not!

This would go against both their nationalist and religious agenda. Religious agenda demands then to return lands of Israel to Islamic rule, and nationalist agenda demands moving Arabs to Israeli proper.

The only negotiations which Hamas may run is to win time to get better arms and rockets. These would be negotiations of a killer who is looking for his gun, and the victim he wants to kill.

And of course Netaniyahu is right about settlements: only Jewish settlements in the disputed land are questioned, but not the Arab settlements, even though Arabs grab much more Israeli government lands than Jews do.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 7:18 am
Kate, you are right about "Afterall, it was the international community that created the problem, time for them to repair and rehab.".

UN applied blatantly biased approach to rewarding Palestinian Arab refugees. UN created a separate agency UNWRA with a huge budget devoted exclusively to Palestinian Arab refugees, and all their descendants - forever. Palestinian Jewish refugees cannot apply to UNWRA.

Any other refugees cannot apply to UNWRA, no matter how much more tragic their fate is, while UNWRA makes Palestinian Arabs The Worst Best Paid Refugees.

Gazans, who were born and lived their whole lives in Gaza, are still considered Refugess and paid by our tax dollars!

Arabs states started the wars against Israel and invited their Arab brothers to gt out of Israel for safety. There were people who betrayed their neighbours and left them to die, as they thought. These people have no rights no come close to Israel anymore, because they were traitors.

UN should disband UNWRA immediately, switch real Palestinian refugees to be treated equally with all the other refugees, and obligate Arab countries to accommodate their brothers like all the nations did to their brothers fallen into hard times.

Israel accepted 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab states, that's more than Arab refugees. Germany accepted a million German refugees after WWII. Serbia accepted Serbs expelled from their Kosovo homeland.

It is time, and oil prices prove it, that Arab states take some responsibility for their disgusting behavior and militancy toward Israel.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 7:27 am
Kate, which 18% of Palestine, from the mouth of world-renown liar Erekat??? You forgot Jordan, another Palestinian Arab state, which grabbed 80% of lands given to both Arab and Jewish states.

Arab states have land mass 10,000 bigger than Israel. Arab states gave nothing to Kurds, Druze, Bahai fighting for the independence, yet they got nerves to come to tiny Israel and demand larger pieces.

The truth is, that nether PA, nor Hamas are not interested in peace. Should they get a full state, the world will forget about them, will stop paying billions of dollars through UNWRA and direct aid, their leaders won't be invited anywhere, except for Iran or Muslim Brotherhood-ruled places.

PA and Hamas leaders are no fools, to start being responsible for well-being of their people instead of doing Glorious Jihad: nobody will give them 72 virgins for making their people happier.

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 1:11 pm
I agree with him.!!

Wednesday December 12, 2012, 3:06 pm
Arogance - Fear - Hatred - is not the road to Peace. The only way to see who is willing to sit down at the negotiation table is to let others make that discision. The countries that voted "yes" at the recent UN on Palestine would be a good start because they worked through the bias. Let them come up with a Plan - then see what happens. Proper negotiations and not "chest beating" is required for peace, safety and stability.