May 12, (Pal Telegraph – By Stephen Lendman) On May 8, Haaretz Service and Reuters headlined, "PLO executive committee approves new peace talks with Israel," saying:

"The Palestinian Authority on Saturday got the green light to restart peace talks with Israel after the PLO's executive voted to approve indirect negotiations," excluding Hamas - the legitimate government after Palestinians overwhelmingly elected them in January 2006. Instead, coup d'etat leader (whose presidential term expired in January 2009) Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will participate, PLO spokesperson Yasser Abed Rabbo saying that "negotiations will take one form: shuttling between President Abu Mazen (Abbas) and the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu." Talks have now begun.

Obama's Middle East special envoy, former Senator and Walt Disney chairman, George Mitchell will do the honors, trying to force Palestinian negotiators to accede to Israeli demands and declare success, until inevitable new violence forces a restart of the whole process at some future time. The charade continues.

Recurrent negotiations have gone on for decades, always with the same result. Rita Mae Brown (in her book "Sudden Death"), and some say Albert Einstein, called it insanity, or the practice of "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." In this case, results are what Israel predetermines, Palestinians having no say whatever about a process designed to fail.

For a detailed analysis, see this writer's article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception."

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html.

Justifiably, Hamas objected to being left out, calling the proximity talks "absurd" because they'll "give the Israeli occupation an umbrella to commit more crimes against the Palestinians. Hamas calls on the PLO to stop selling illusions to the Palestinian people and announce the failure of their gambling on absurd talks."

On May 7, the Chinese Xinuah news agency said that the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also rejected talks as "ill and absurd, whether direct or indirect," given numerous earlier failures, or as honest peace brokers explain: besides excluding its legitimate government, how can Palestinians negotiate in good faith without a willing partner.

They've never had one in Israel, nor do they this time. As a result, expect another round of peace process hypocrisy, producing rhetoric but nothing else, or what this writer earlier called the tragedy and travesty at Annapolis, the last bogus November 2007 effort.

Negotiations are one-sided. Israel makes demands and offers nothing. Abbas has been co-opted to go along, so failure is again assured. Yet President Shimon Peres claims Israel is "committed to peace" and a sovereign Palestinian state, a cantonized one encroached on for as much West Bank land as Israel wishes and all East Jerusalem, an international city under a UN Trusteeship Council, as much a rightful Palestinian capital as for Israel.

A topic not to be discussed, nor the right of return, a legitimate state, the preferable one-state solution, and the end to 43 years of oppressive military occupation. Not important enough to be on the agenda nor the legitimate rights and concerns of a sovereign people, set up again to be betrayed.

With new peace talks underway, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) reported that from April 29 - May 5:

-- Israeli security forces continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property in the West Bank and Gaza;

-- seven Palestinian civilians, including two children and a journalist, were shot and wounded;

-- nonviolent West Bank protesters were assaulted;

-- the IDF fired at Palestinian farmers in Gaza border areas;

-- their forces conducted 23 incursions in West Bank communities and one in Gaza;

-- in the West Bank, they arrested 40 civilians, including eight children, three journalists, and two human rights workers;

-- Gaza remains under siege while West Bank free expression and movements are restricted;

-- home and other Palestinian demolitions continue;

-- Separation Wall construction continues a process of separation, isolation, and annexation of 12% of Palestinian West Bank land;

-- East Jerusalem ethnic cleansing continues;

-- West Bank and Gazan agricultural lands are being destroyed;

-- regular settler attacks on Palestinians occur; and

-- settlement expansion goes on unabated.

In this environment, peace talks have resumed, but there's more. On May 7, Jerusalem Post writer Caroline Glick headlined, "Column One: Time to plan for war," saying that Obama's "repeated abdication of responsibility (for) preventing nuclear non-proliferation leaves it on Israel's shoulders" to prepare for the:

"coming war (in which) Israel will have only one goal: to destroy or seriously damage Iran's nuclear installations. Every resource turned against Iran's proxies must be aimed at facilitating that goal. That is, the only thing Israel should seek to accomplish in contending with Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas is to prevent them from diverting Israeli's resources away from attacking Iran's nuclear installations."

It gets worse, advocating a "preemptive strike against Hizbullah's missiles and missile launchers, Syria's missiles, artillery and launchers, and Hamas's missiles and launchers....These are dangerous times. Iran, which seeks to position itself as a regional superpower, has been emboldened by the Obama administration's abdication of US global leadership. Only Israel can prevent Iran from endangering the world. But time is of the essence."

Glick advocates all-out war at a time Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria pose no threat. Only Israel and America's presence do, a topic unaddressed in her article nor are new proposed peace talks.

However, her column serves a purpose. Besides highlighting Israel's belligerency, she acknowledges its "undeclared nuclear arsenal (that) only threatens those who would attack the Jewish state with the intention of annihilating it." She assumes because Israel never used it, or failed to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) as Iran did, that it "has the right to develop a nuclear program," weapons, of course, because Dimona doesn't generate electricity.

Read the full Interesting article here : Stephen_Lendman_Report_copy.doc

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Photo By: Eman Jomaa