'Reaching an agreement to end conflict is not achievable'

[Chris]

'Reaching an agreement to end conflict is not achievable'
By GIL HOFFMAN AND JPOST.COM STAFF
09/05/2010 19:52
Not in the next year or next generation, says FM Lieberman; Israel must learn lessons from years of talks and consider what happens if Hamas wins next election.

"Signing a collective agreement in which the other side agrees to end the conflict is not achievable in the next year or in the next generation," said Foreign Minister Avigdor Leiberman as he spoke to Israel Beiteinu activists in Jerusalem Sunday. "Before seeking the pretentious goal of a final status agreement in a year, we must learn lessons from 17 years of talks and determine whether we have a partner who can deliver the goods," Lieberman said.

At the rally, Lieberman stressed that the Israeli government must "ask who [Mahmoud] Abbas represents. In Gaza, Hamas in power. Palestinian election has been delayed multiple times. In West Bank their control isn't sufficient. What if we make a deal and Hamas says it's not legitimate?" The foreign minister questioned. "What if there will be elections and Hamas wins?" Lieberman insisted that, "There is a lot of food for thought here." The foreign minister insisted, "Why since Oslo haven't we succeeded in making a deal? So many prime ministers tried. There has been many grandiose productions of the international peace industry."

more...................'Reaching an agreement to end conflict is not achievable'

[mattfivefour]

Finally. Lieberman agrees with God. (Sort of.)

[Chris]

Lieberman: This generation will not see Middle East peace
Palestinian Authority is incapable of peace – but will not return to violence, says FM, calling for interim deal as substitute for final status agreement.
By Jonathan Lis

A peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians will not be achieved in the foreseeable future, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Sunday. Speaking at a conference of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party, Lieberman said a complete peace agreement that included an end of the conflict and Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state was unattainable, even with significant concessions and territorial compromise. Peace was impossible, "not next year and not for the next generation", Lieberman said.

His comments came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas prepared for a second face-to-face meeting, after kicking off new U.S.-sponsored peace talks in Washington last week.

more....................Lieberman: This generation will not see Middle East peace - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

[Chris]

Lieberman: We won’t have peace for generations
By GIL HOFFMAN
09/05/2010 19:52
Attacking his own government’s diplomatic efforts, FM says nation has suffered enough from the ‘adventures and experiments of irresponsible politicians.'

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday fiercely attacked the diplomatic process with the Palestinians that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began in Washington last week, telling Israel Beiteinu activists in the capital that a peace deal is “unachievable.” In a lengthy address to more than a thousand supporters at the Rimonim (formerly Shalom) Hotel, Lieberman criticized previous governments and his own for not learning the lessons of 17 years of failed diplomatic negotiations.

He said he gets asked all the time why he is against hope, and he responds that he is for hope but against illusions. “It must be understood that signing a comprehensive agreement in which both sides agree to end the conflict and end all of their claims and recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is a goal that is not achievable in the next year or in the next generation, so any historic compromises or painful concessions won’t help,” he said. The best that could come out of the talks was a long-term interim agreement with the Palestinians, Lieberman said.

more..................Lieberman: We won

[GlennO]

(IsraelNationalNews.com)
by Maayana Miskin Lieberman: No Peace in Our Time

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Sunday that the expectations of Israel's current negotiations with the Palestinian Authority are not realistic. At a ceremonial toast in honor of the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah, he called on the government to learn from the Oslo peace talks, which ended with the murderous onslaught known as the Oslo War (or the Second Intifada), in which thousands of Israelis were killed or maimed in terrorist attacks.

Lieberman expressed concern over PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' ability to maintain his grasp on the PA in the face of increasing opposition. “Do we have a real partner? What if we sign with Abu Mazen [Abbas] and Hamas takes over?” he asked.

“We learned nothing from the Disengagement from Gush Katif,” Lieberman continued. “If we return to the 1967 territories, the demands from the Palestinian side will only increase.”

Israel removed IDF troops and thousands of Jewish residents from Gaza in 2005, when the Fatah-led PA controlled the region. One year later Hamas swept the PA elections and in 2007 it seized complete control of Gaza and went on to launch a campaign of terror against southern Israel, firing thousands of rockets and mortar shells at Jewish towns in the western Negev.

While the PA expressed willingness to negotiate with Israel and possibly to recognize Israel, although not as a Jewish state, Hamas has rejected any hint of a compromise in favor of an open effort to destroy Israel by any means.

Israel should not expect the PA to recognize its right to exist as a Jewish state any time soon, Lieberman cautioned. “A peace agreement in which the Palestinians will recognize Israel – that's a goal that can't be achieved, not over the course of the next year, not over the course of the next generation,” he said. “Not through compromise, and not through painful concessions.”

Regarding the Judea and Samaria construction freeze, he said, “We are not prepared to accept even one more minute of the freeze, of more concessions.” Israel froze construction for ten months; the PA agreed to direct talks at the beginning of the tenth month and now has insisted that the construction freeze continue, threatening to call off negotiations if it is not.