Opinion Editorials, December 2003, www.aljazeerah.info
Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people
Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
Cities, localities, and tourist attractions
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Intervention required
Jordan Times, Monday, December 29, 2003
THE RECURRENCE of the cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians after a period of relative calm does not augur well for the Middle East peace roadmap on which all sides have been pinning great hopes. In retrospect, in the absence of serious peace talks, the prospects for the return to violence become imminent. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also been doing everything possible under the sun to undermine the efforts to get the two sides back to the negotiating table. The tempo of violence and targeted assassinations by Israeli occupation forces have reached a new peak over the past few weeks, something that suggests the Israeli government is bent on derailing a projected meeting between Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
It is hard to imagine where the two parties may go from the current abyss in which they find themselves. Nothing short of an international intervention may save the area from renewed rounds of bloodletting. This is the time for the UN Security Council to deal with the Palestinian conflict in a more determined way and take appropriate steps and measures to impose a real ceasefire or armistice in a bid to enforce a solution of its own on both the Israelis and Palestinians alike on the basis of its own Resolution 242 and the roadmap which it has recently been endorsed. Since the immediate parties to the conflict do not seem to be able to arrive at a solution or settlement, it is high time the Security Council adopts the necessary resolution to deal with the current stalemate.
The international community already has the basis for a solution of the Palestinian question and all that is needed now is the implementation of Resolution 242 and the roadmap by the UN itself. The council has the means to enforce its own resolutions on the Palestinian situation. It should exercise its authority without hesitation. Otherwise, the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians would continue to fester and deteriorate to an extent that it could become unmanageable.
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| Earth, a planet hungry for peace |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03). |
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| The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03). |
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