Tuesday, December 6, 2011

My Complaint about Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, "Get to the damn table"!

Dear Readers, I have explained how easy it is to use Pakin.org to drum up a Letter of Complaint.  Simply type in what troubles you on any issue and wham! -- the letter is written and awaiting to be posted.  The latest comments by this administration's leaders, directed at Israel (more specifically, PM Netanyahu) is such a disgrace, not to mention another demeaning, disrespectful jibe at our ally Israel, that I hope you bare with me long enough to read the following Complaint.  This is the next best thing to confronting Panetta face to face!
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LETTER OF COMPLAINT

Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! not only lies but brags about its lying to its bedfellows. Although the proper definition of "theologicohistorical" is hotly disputed, if Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"!'s attitudes were intended as a joke, Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! forgot to include the punchline. 

Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! seems unable to think of turns of speech that aren't hackneyed. What really grates on my nerves, however, is that its prose consists less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning than of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse. When Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"!'s reports are challenged, it usually responds by using every conceivable form of diplomacy, deception, pressure, coercion, bribery, treason, and terror to bask in the pharisaical shine of poststructuralism. Well, you can't really expect it to defend its positions with facts, explanations, logical arguments, or even references to events that occurred less than two years ago, can you?

It's easy for armchair philosophers to theorize about Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! and about hypothetical solutions to our Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! problem. It's an entirely more difficult matter, however, when one considers that it exhibits an air of superiority. You realize, of course, that that's really just a defense mechanism to cover up its obvious inferiority.

 I might have been dreaming but I believe I once heard Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! admit, sotto voce, that it claims that the Queen of England heads up the international drug cartel. Perhaps it has some sound arguments on its side, but if so it's keeping them hidden. (Does Panetta need to read "How to influence people? ... for starters?  Or, is he just repeating the words of his boss in the White House?)


 I'd say it's far more likely that what I have been writing up to this point is not what I initially intended to write in this letter. Instead, I decided it would be far more productive to tell you that Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! needs to stop living in denial. (As in, which group refuses to come to "the damn table"? - Try the Palestinian Authority - good guess!)  It needs to wake up and realize that it might destabilize society and the entire Middle East by next weekend. What are we to do then? Place blinders over our eyes and hope we don't see the horrible outcome? To summarize what I've written up to this point, I draw strength and courage from knowing that most people comprehend the necessity to stop Leon Panetta's demand of Israel, 'Get to the damn Table"! and are supportive of my role in it. You know I'm right. Now what are you going to do about it?

and now, after letting off a little steam, here is a great article by Fresno Zionism (below):

Why they aren’t at “the damn table”

Leon Panetta: his fury is misdirected
Leon Panetta: his fury is misdirected
One of the themes of the Obama Administration’s policy is that Israel is responsible for the non-progress of the ‘peace process’ between Israel and the PLO.

For example, last week the US Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, said this directly:
“I understand the view that this is not the time to pursue peace, and that the Arab awakening further imperils the dream of a safe and secure, Jewish and democratic Israel. But I disagree with that view,” Panetta said.
He said Israel needed to take risks, including by breathing new life into moribund peace talks with Palestinians. When asked by a moderator what steps Israel needed to take to pursue peace, Panetta said: “Just get to the damn table.”

But yesterday, as if more evidence were needed, a Palestinian Authority/PLO spokesman proudly announced that it was they who did not want to sit at the table with Israel:
The Palestinian Authority reiterated Sunday its opposition to holding direct peace talks with Israel and pointed out that the Quartet members – the US, EU, UN and Russia – had called for separate negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
The PA’s announcement came in response to remarks by US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, who said last Friday that Israel and the Palestinians must start direct talks before there can be any negotiation on borders and security.
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat expressed surprise at Washington’s call for direct talks.
He said that the Quartet called last September for separate talks with the two parties, during which Israel and the Palestinians would present their positions on security and borders…
The PLO official said that the Palestinians would agree to face-to-face talks only when Israel halts all settlement construction and accepts the pre-1967 lines as the borders of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. [my emphasis]

Given that this has been the US position since time immemorial, and given that the PLO signed the Oslo agreement which calls for such direct negotiations, Erekat’s expression of surprise is disingenuous. Of course, the PLO has already breached the Oslo agreement by applying to the UN for unilateral statehood, and by allying itself with the unrepentantly terrorist Hamas.

On the other hand, Israel’s PM Netanyahu has called for direct negotiations without preconditions on numerous occasions.
Erekat’s interpretation of the Quartet’s September 23 statement is also disingenuous to the point of outright lying. The statement says that
The Quartet reiterated its urgent appeal to the parties to overcome the current obstacles and resume direct bilateral Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without delay or preconditions.

It is correct that the Quartet also said that it will convene an international conference “at the appropriate time.” But what doesn’t Erekat understand about “direct bilateral … negotiations without delay or preconditions?”
Israel quite reasonably will not agree to the Palestinian preconditions, insisting that borders, Jerusalem, and the fate of ‘settlements’ are among the issues that must be negotiated. And apparently there are even more preconditions:
The Palestinian Authority is set to demand that the Quartet pressure Israel to release prisoners in fulfillment of a pledge made by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, senior Palestinian sources told Haaretz on Monday…
Now the PA wants to present the demand ahead of a possible renewal of negotiations with Israel.  — Ha’aretz, Oct. 26

The Palestinians know that they would have to concede something — security arrangements, recognition of the Jewish state, right of return, end of conflict, etc. — in serious negotiations. They cannot or will not do that, so they prefer to have the US force Israel to give them what they want as preconditions. Then all that will remain to negotiate will be how fast Israel leaves the territories.
And for some reason, the Obama Administration seems to be going along with their plan.



Let's go to a video that sums up the real problem facing anyone seeking "peace" in the Middle East:

The great Palestinian lie