Kerry's Kurdles

Thanks for the reminder to Yoram Ettinger:-

Kerry also said that final agreement would have to include a Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem.
"Any negotiation has its limits, added Senator Kerry, and we know for the Palestinians that control of Al-Aqsa mosque and the establishment of some kind of capital for the Palestinians in East Jerusalem are not negotiable," the cable stated, summarizing the meeting with the emir. "For the Israelis, the Senator continued, Israel's character as a Jewish state is not open for negotiation. The non-militarization of an eventual Palestinian state and its borders can nonetheless be resolved through negotiation."

...Kerry also agreed with the emir that the Golan Heights should be given back to Syria at some point.
"The Chairman added that Netanyahu also needs to compromise and work the return of the Golan Heights into a formula for peace," the diplomatic cable reported.

And here is the Secretary speaking tonight:

SECRETARY KERRY: ...Let me be very clear about what we are doing now and where we are...we are working with great intensity, with serious purpose, with the commitment to trying to resolve this conflict that has gone on for many years too long, and which I think presents us now with the possibility of trying to find a framework agreement which would really lay out the end game and lay out the framework for the major issues to guide the negotiations from this point forward...we’re not there yet, but we are making progress and we are beginning to flesh out the toughest hurdles yet to be overcome.

...I will be going from here back to Jerusalem, where tonight I will meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Tomorrow, I will go to Jordan to meet with King Abdullah and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, and from there I will fly to Saudi Arabia where I will meet with King Abdullah in order to talk about where we are, what we’re trying to do in the days ahead.  Next weekend, I will meet with the Arab League Follow-on Committee with respect to the Arab Peace Initiative...

...There are narrative issues; difficult, complicated years of mistrust that have been built up, all of which as to be worked through and undone, and a pathway has to be laid down in which the parties can have confidence that they know what is happening and that the road ahead is real, not illusory.

So I remain hopeful as I have been, and I am confident that the talks we’ve had in the last two days have already fleshed out and even resolved certain kinds of issues and presented new opportunities for others. That’s the name of this game...

This doesn't read a bit ridiculous to you?


^

The Voice of a Rational Syria

The Reform Party of Syria has learned today, from intelligence sources close to the Assad regime in Lebanon, that Syrians storming through the Golan Height next to the Quneitra crossing are Syrian farmers who have migrated in recent years from the drought-stricken northeast Syria to the south...Information received cite the regime has paid hundreds of these farmers $1,000 each to show-up and $10,000 to their families should any of them succumb to Israeli fire...such a one-time sum can keep them economically afloat for six months.

...It is obvious, with this action, Assad wants to divert the attention of the world away from his own massacres and brutality that resulted in some 70 deaths yesterday and about 30 today in Jisr al-Shoghour.

^

IDF Preparing for the Incoming Hordes

Mining sensitive areas near border crossing on Golan Heights:

More pictures here.

^

Sometimes, You Need A Better Angle

Just in case, from Jerusalem they move north:

First the Poles, Then The Phillipinos

My friend RA asks:

Does this mean that the IDF can now continue to call up miluim up to the age of 80 because there will be Phillipinim there to take care of them?

And the "this" is:

Philipinne troups replace Poles in Golan Heights.

MANILA (AFP) - The Philippines will send a battalion to the Golan Heights to join United Nations peacekeeping efforts there, the government said on Monday. The first members of the 336-strong contingent will begin deploying this month in the nation’s “biggest and most challenging mission” since joining UN peacekeeping efforts over 40 years ago, Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro said. The Philippines detachment will take over from a Polish contingent in the UN Disengagement Observer Force, established in 1974 following the agreed disengagement of Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights.

I Prefer The View of Us Looking Towards Damascus

rather than the other way around.

Safer that way, too. And more secure for all.

NYTimes Ill-logic

We welcome President Bush’s decision to include Syria on the list of countries invited to a November Middle East peace meeting...If Damascus chooses not to attend the meeting, it would again confirm its role as one of the region’s dangerous spoilers. If it chooses to come, the chances for peace may increase.

And why is this illogical, you ask?

Because no matter what Syria does or decides, the NYT will constantly pressuring Israel to give up its security (i.e., the Golan Heights).

So, the Golan Heights is "Israeli Occupied"?

And where did this map - with the Golan Heights identified as "Israeli occupied" - appear?



That's right, the Jerusalem Post.

A bit odd, no?

Does the Jerusalem Post have trouble with the law of the land?

Hint:

The Golan Heights Law - 5742/1981, 14 December 1981.

The law was adopted by the Knesset later that evening by a majority of 63 against 21. Among those in favor were eight members of the Labor Party opposition. Mr. Begin argued that the time had come to implement the government's policy regarding the Golan Heights and cited Syria's implacable hostility to Israel. He reminded the ministers that the Syrian president had recently rejected any ties with Israel, even if the PLO would recognize Israel. Another reason for the timing of the passage of the law was the continued presence of Syrian missiles in Lebanon. Text:

1. The Law, jurisdiction and administration of the state shall apply to the Golan Heights, as described in the Appendix.

2. This Law shall become valid on the day of its passage in the Knesset.

3. The Minister of the Interior shall be charged with the implementation of this Law, and he is entitled, in consultation with the Minister of Justice, to enact regulations for its implementation and to formulate in regulations transitional provisions concerning the continued application of regulations, orders, administrative orders, rights and duties which were in force on the Golan Heights prior to the application of this Law.