Israel has agreed to release 24 Israeli Arab prisoners serving life sentences who were incarcerated before the 1993 Oslo Accords, having already agreed to free 82 pre-Oslo Palestinian prisoners, Israel Radio reported Saturday. The releases would be carried out in phases, the radio report said, in parallel with progress at Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which are set to resume next week.
If true, this would appear to mean all the pre-Oslo prisoners would go free as the talks continue. The Palestinian Authority had long sought the prisoners’ release as a precondition for resuming talks, a demand Israel refused. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reportedly long been offering to free several dozen of the pre-Oslo prisoners, many of whom were convicted for terrorist crimes involving multiple murders, but had balked at releasing them all.
Devine (Islamic) Design ... or ... Willing (Barackic) Ignorance?
. A Spoiled Meal At The Table Of Peace ... (Again)
A Full Meal At The Abundant U.N. (Peace) Table:
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Hirsi Ali says that the two sides, the Israelis and Palestinians, have diametrically opposed concerns, and this has lead to the current stalemate.
“…the main problem is that you may speak of a peace process, but what you get is a process, not peace. And why is this process so prolonged? Because for the Israelis this issue is a territorial problem. For the Palestinian negotiators, on the other hand, it is not a territorial problem but a religious and ethnic one, It is not only about Palestinians but about all Arabs. Most of all, it is a religious problem.”
Hirsi Ali continues: “But there is no agreement as of today, because on one side it has become religious jihad of all or nothing, while on the other side it is still a territorial issue. Of course I know that there are Israelis who also perceive this as a religious problem; but their numbers pale in comparison to the Muslim side.”
Describing Islam as an “Orthopraxy”— something that must be fought for, Hirsi Ali says that what is needed most— compromise—is unlikely to be attainable.
“More and more leaders see that this conflict is not going to be resolved Western-style, namely that all conflicts are resolvable and no-one leaves the table empty-handed,” she says. “In a culture dictated by honor and shame – in addition to the religious issue – defeat of any kind, accepting a compromise, is to leave the room empty-handed. Compromise is loss in this culture. It is very hard to explain this to contemporary Westerners.”
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