Free Republic

Prime Minister Salaam Fayad on Tuesday unveiled a plan to create a de facto Palestinian state in two years..Fayad said the PA government wanted to build state institutions without waiting for the outcome of peace talks

Mike Huckabee said Tuesday there is no room for a Palestinian state "in the middle of the Jewish homeland" and Israel should be able to build settlements wherever it wants — taking a stance firmly at odds with Washington....said the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else. "The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic."

... the Palestinian National Authority and the factions demanded that Obama's speech include clear concepts related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the equity of the Palestinian cause, regardless of the ties between Israel and the United States... "Obama will try, through his speech to pretty up the image of America in the Islamic world and he will say that America decided to change its policies towards the Muslims," said leading Islamic Jihad leader Mohamed al-Hindi. Al-Hindi expected that "Tomorrow (Thursday) Obama will declare that he supports the two-state solution vision and will call the Arabs for complete normalization with Israel."

Senior Israeli officials were dismissive and defiant on Saturday night, following Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's visit to Washington, highlighted by a report in which PA officials said the leadership is waiting for US pressure to bring down the Netanyahu government..... ...It will take a couple of years" for this American pressure to force Netanyahu from office, the Washington Post quoted one of Abbas's officials as saying.... "With all due respect to the United States, our strategic ally, we are an independent democratic country, and our political leadership is chosen by internal democratic processes," coalition chairman and Likud MK Ze'ev...

Egyptian mediators have stepped up diplomatic pressure on rival Palestinian groups to form a unity government, setting a July 7 deadline for a deal to bridge internal divisions blocking peace talks with Israel.....Hamas Islamists running the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip are not prepared to recognize Israel and conclude a permanent peace. They will only go as far as a 10-year truce, which the Jewish state says is no substitute for a comprehensive peace...

A Palestinian negotiator on Tuesday said Israel can not be invited to an international peace conference planned to take place in the near future in Moscow.... Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is on a visit to Russia, was told that Moscow was looking at the possibility of combining the Middle East conference with U.S. President Barack Obama's visit in July.