Free Republic

Nov. 26, 2003Who backs Beilin? By URI DAN Billionaire George Soros recently announced that he would spend money like water to prevent President George W. Bush's re-election. He explained that he opposes Bush's foreign policy, especially the war against Saddam Hussein. This doesn't surprise me. Soros has also long adopted a pro-Palestinian posture in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike many Jewish millionaires, Soros hasn't learned the lessons of the Holocaust, despite being one of the few survivors of Hungarian Jewry. Bush made a stand against extremist Muslim fanaticism which threatens the free world. Israel is fortunate that Bush created a common...

Nov. 26, 2003 Powell optimistic about road map By JPOST.COM STAFF U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expressed optimism about renewed movement toward peace in the Middle East in an interview released Wednesday, but said the new Palestinian government must first show it is acting against terrorism. "We should not say that the 'road map' is dead," Powell was quoted as saying in the interview, to be published in Thursday's edition of the German weekly Die Zeit. "We have not only a new Palestinian leadership but also movement on the Israeli side." Powell cited among the encouraging signs "interesting comments...

Nov. 26, 2003 Katzav hosts Geneva Initiative architects By GIL HOFFMAN President Moshe Katzav hosted the Palestinian signatories to the Geneva Initiative at Beit Ha-Nassi (the President's residence) Wednesday. At the start of the meeting, former Palestinian minister Yasser Abed Rabo said that his delegation is "extending the hand of peace to Israel." "We are looking for the support of all Israelis who want peace in this land to help create a bridge to peace," Abed Rabo said. "Both sides have suffered a lot. We hope to put an end to the suffering and start a new era of friendship,...

Hefty Geneva document mailed to every home Some households torch alternative pact in protest JERUSALEM—Peace landed on Israel's doorstep with a thump this week, all 47 pages of it. Whether it's worth the paper it is printed on remains to be seen. But as of today, the contentious Geneva Agreement, a document crafted behind the backs of the Israeli and Palestinian leaderships, stands as something unprecedented in the century-plus history of the world's most intractable conflict. Never before have Israelis and Palestinians so intricately mapped out an answer to the conflict by mutual accord, replete with detailed solutions for the...

Gen. Yaakov Amidror, a religious Jew who headed IDF Military Intelligence, condemned the Geneva plan in yesterday's edition of Haaretz. He noted a number of dangerous concessions proposed by Yossi Beilin and the other Israelis who helped formulate the plan, including the ceding of the Temple Mount, which he said clearly indicates that the "Jewish nation is giving up on the center of its national identity, and giving it to its competitors who claim ownership of the land." Amidror also bemoaned the willingness to give up almost all of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, especially the Ariel area, which "greatly increases...

Oct. 30, 2003 Blair welcomes "Geneva Accord" By ASSOCIATED PRESS LONDON Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday he hoped that an informal Mideast peace plan reached by former Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would stimulate debate and complement the U.S.-backed roadmap. The "Geneva Accord," which has no formal standing, proposes a Palestinian state formed on nearly all the land Israel captured in the Six Day War. The Israeli government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has condemned the unofficial negotiations and launched an effort to discourage foreign support for the agreement. But in a statement released by his office Thursday, Blair...

Oct. 27, 2003 The fine print By EVELYN GORDON Yossi Beilin When the "Geneva Initiative" was first unveiled two weeks ago, it was immediately clear that it constituted a gross violation of democratic norms: A small band of opposition figures, acting without the elected government's knowledge or consent, had negotiated a draft "peace agreement" with an enemy, with the explicit aim of generating international pressure on future governments to endorse the concessions contained therein.The full extent of the damage, however, became evident only last Friday, with publication of the document's full text – because a close reading makes it clear...

Strategic Slyness of the Geneva Accord by Stan Goodenough Oct 27, '03 / 1 Cheshvan 5764 So what's the big deal with the so-called Geneva Accord - the "agreement" concocted by a cabal of Israeli non-officials in cahoots with second-tier Palestinian leaders, and sprung upon the unsuspecting Jewish public just a few days ago? Certainly it has some very dangerous, potentially disastrous elements, chief among them the offering up of Israel's holiest site in exchange for another Palestinian paper promise, this time that they will no longer insist on the "right" of their people to "return" to pre-1967 Israel and...

Why They Don´t Like the Geneva Initiative 11:44 Oct 27, '03 / 1 Cheshvan 5764 Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA has studied the Geneva initiative in depth, has interviewed several of its promoters, and has found many points that are likely to prove harmful to Israeli interests. Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA ("www.imra.org.il") has studied the Geneva initiative in depth and has interviewed several of its promoters. He spoke with Tzvia Greenfield, for instance, whom he described as "an ultra-orthodox public figure active in support of withdrawal... [who] has been interviewing with the media as part of the promotion campaign...

Oct. 26, 2003 Shalom: France, Belgium giving $7 million to 'Geneva' group By HERB KEINON France and Belgium have pledged $7 million to the developers of the "Geneva Initiative" freelance peace plan drawn up by Israeli and Palestinian former government officials and politicians, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Sunday. Shalom told the weekly Cabinet meeting that the government has registered protests with the two countries for their support of this unofficial, non-government venture. He did not elaborate at the meeting on the nature of the protest. The initiative's developers, led by Yossi Beilin, were in Europe last week seeking support....

Oct. 26, 2003 The people want a plan By NACHMAN SHAI Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, the justice minister, has sharp instincts, possibly going back to the time he was a journalist and later a television commentator in the early days of the television shoutfest Popolitica. As a panelist he always knew how to find the right word, the right reaction. It is very possible that those qualities, and others, are what carried him to the peaks of politics. He became a minister and head of the second-biggest party with 16 seats. Last week, he unexpectedly stood up and admitted: We made...