Berkeley Forum

Omid, you touch some good points with respect to the Israeli election, I do however disagree with your assertion that the outcome of this election will determine the path of the peace process. Whatever the outcome, whether it is an outright victory for Kadmia or a coalition government between the latter and the Labour party, the Palestinian people will losse. As a matter of fact the whole peace process has been skewed from the very beginning. Whomever is in government in Israel will proceed with the unilateral disengagement, this policy guarantees Israel's security and economic interests without any bargaining. And let us not forget that Hamas is a mere scapegoat for policies that Israel has been pursuing for decades now, to blame Hamas for Israel's current hardline positions is simply ignorance of history. My final point is, the peace process has been devoid of any credibility since the beginning since its underlying premises were not to provide a fair and balanced solution that satisfies everyone, but rather to cloak Israeli policies in a cover of legitimacy while denying Palestinians the bear minimum.
 

Welcome Berkeley Forum. Nothing will do if we look at paths, processes, maps, roads, and we fail to look at peace as the sole goal. You have seen for 40 years it has been useless all that talking about peace process, since we had few people working on a building (say, trying to get politically to the 1967 borders) and someone destroying it at the same time by sending tens of thousands settlers to the territories or building a wall on palestinian newly grabbed land, just waiting for someone to blow himself up and retaliate on someone else. Easy to say that if there is a "way out" this is the wrong one. ^^v^^