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Don’t recent events prove that the Oslo Agreements and the Geneva Accord are finished? Under Arafat's leadership, the Palestinians have been violating signed agreements for years, so why are we obligated, either legally or morally, to uphold them? |
This isn’t a legal issue: We can choose to withhold our support for these agreements whenever we want. It’s a security and a political issue. Are we convinced that we have reached the point at which we must choose war (and suffer many casualties on both sides), or are we going to keep on exploiting every opportunity we have for peace in order to change the situation in which we are living? MERETZ-YACHAD is committed to supporting every course of action that increases the chance that we can end the violence, even in these difficult times.
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I support the peace process. I used to vote for Israel’s Labor Party. I voted once for Meretz (in Shulamit Aloni’s time). I also believe that many of the settlements should be evacuated, but I’m amazed that some people actually consider giving up the “Kot |
There is no plan to give the “Kotel” to the Palestinians, and they haven’t demand this either. The argument between Israel and the Palestinians is about sovereignty over the Temple Mount (Har HaBait/Haram el-Sharif).
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I want to know MERETZ-YACHAD’s stance on “Ma’ale Adumim” (a Jerusalem neighborhood that lies beyond the Green Line). |
MERETZ-YACHAD hasn’t drawn the permanent borders of the State of Israel in detail. MERETZ-YACHAD objects to all settlements and considers them an obstacle to peace, but it is clear that the final-status agreement will have to provide a reasonable solution to the reality that has been created. Fortunately, we saw at Camp David that the Palestinians understand this, and we believe that in certain cases we will be able to agree on border variations.
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There are peace movements on the Israeli side, but what is there on the Palestinian side? Why isn’t there a Palestinian peace movement that raises its voice? Why don’t we see Palestinians sporting buttons that call for peace? Why don’t we hear them condem |
First of all, there are many peace movements on the Palestinian side, and we have been cooperating with them for many years. Nevertheless, it’s true that there have been no large public protests against the violence, and we regret that. This discrepancy derives partly from cultural differences and partly from the fact that it’s hard to compare the two sides in terms of everyday life. It should be clear that MERETZ-YACHAD works as a peace movement for the benefit of the State of Israel and for its citizens. We don’t need the approval of the Palestinians in order to act on behalf of Israeli citizens.
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What happens if we give the Palestinians the Occupied Territories and Arafat then violates the Geneva Accord, as he did with the Oslo Agreements, by attacking us? We can’t afford to lose a war. Once we lose there is no turning back. It would be the end of |
First of all, we will only transfer territories to the Palestinians after we have signed an agreement with them. Peace will then prevail, because both sides will have an interest in maintaining it. This is a security guarantee that is better than any border. Second, the current security situation is a lot more problematic: It doesn’t allow separation between Israelis and Palestinians, and it forces Israel to post IDF soldiers in dangerous areas such as Netzarim and Kfar Darom. Third, there is no comparison between Israeli and Palestinian military power. The Palestinians do not represent a concrete threat to the existence of Israel.
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What is MERETZ-YACHAD ‘s stance on the demand that all Palestinian refugees must return to their homes, and is it true that this demand was the cause of Ehud Barak’s failure to secure an agreement at Camp David? |
There was no demand at Camp David for the return of the refugees to their homes. The Palestinians consider Israel responsible for the fate of 2 million Palestinian refugees. They demand that Israel recognize this responsibility.
MERETZ-YACHAD knows that the demand for the return of the refugees within the Green Line is impossible. The agreement that was reached at Camp David -- which MERETZ-YACHAD supports -- is that the Palestinian refugees should return to the territory of a future Palestinian state and that appropriate compensation will be provided to refugees who lost their property in order to rehabilitate them on a humanitarian basis.
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