Palestinians say were promised Jerusalem

[Scurrilous]

PA sources claim US officials said any future state would include part of Jewish capital as their own, cessation of all settlement construction in West Bank; demand clear schedule for two-state solution

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3718592,00.html

<snip>

"US President Barack Obama's new peace plan for the Middle East continues to unravel, ahead of it official presentation in Cairo, on June 4.

Official Palestinian Authority sources told Ynet Wednesday that following Jordan's King Abdullah's visit to Washington, as well as other visits to the US capital, they were given the impression that any new American peace plan would call for establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

The source stressed that the US official also assured them the new plan would include halting all settlement construction, as well as setting a clear timetable for the realization of the two-state solution and a commitment that the permanent peace agreement would be negotiated according to the understanding set by the Arab peace initiative.

The US plans to add "improvements" to the Arab peace plan: According to an early May report in London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, the revised plan will include reintegrating Palestinian refugees either in various Arab nations, or in the demilitarized Palestinian state, and Israel and the Palestinian Authority would agree to a land exchange.

The revised plan is also said to call for east Jerusalem to be made the new state's capital – with the Palestinian Authority's flag waving over it official institutions and the UN banner waving over the Old City and places sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity."

[harun]

1. I don't see how any country has the right to ask any other country to be demilitarized.

Especially in that neighborhood.

[Sezu]

2. Did they also mention they have to give up terrorism first?

Good luck with that.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Israel insists on an undivided Jerusalem, while the Palestinians

insist on Jerusalem being their capital.

Why can't the two sides agree on an undivided, but shared, capital? Have shared logistics and jurisdiction within the city - joint law enforcement, infrastructure, etc. - and home to both Parliaments, both seats of government. Make it a true international city.

So it's never been done before - big deal. If we are to survive the 21st century we have to move beyond the strictures of outmoded nationalism. What better place to start?