Annapolis folly: Palestinian shopkeeper invites customers to smash souvenir mugs
Update: The shadow of Iran looms…and expectations “are lower than the Dead Sea.”
***
If things don’t go their way in Annapolis tomorrow at the Mideast Capitulation Summit, a Palestinian shopkeeper recommends that customers smash his souvenir mugs to bits (via Reuters):
In a symbol of fragile hopes for this week’s Middle East peace conference at Annapolis, one Palestinian shopkeeper is selling souvenir mugs for the event — complete with instructions to smash them if talks break down.
Under a dove and olive branch motif, the mugs carry the message in English: “Please keep this souvenir, but in case of the conference’s failure; you are only asked to break the mug”.
Tareq Abu Dayya, who runs a gift shop in the Gaza Strip, said he meant the mugs to symbolize hope the conference could lead to a Palestinian state but also his low expectations for success:
“If the conference doesn’t succeed, then the poor citizen can do nothing but break this mug. End of story,” said Abu Dayya, who reported brisk sales of mugs at a hefty $2.50 apiece.
Demand “peace.” Threaten property destruction. If only mugs were the sole targets of their rage…
Amos Harel weighs Israel’s defensive dilemma on the eve of the Annapolis folly:
Here, in a nutshell, is the Israel Defense Forces’ dilemma ahead of the Annapolis conference: To what extent should proactive measures in the West Bank (and to a lesser extent in the Gaza Strip) be rolled back in the coming days?
On the one hand, an excess of arrest operations could obviously lead to an unnecessary entanglement that would cloud the atmosphere at the conference, whose chances for success are already limited. If civilians are killed - or even wanted gunmen - on the day before the summit, the Palestinians will be able to accuse Israel of sabotaging the peace process. On the other hand, reducing the IDF’s activity could let Palestinian terrorist groups achieve their goal of disrupting the conference by a showy attack.
As of last night, the central and southern army commands had not received any new directives. In an arrest sweep yesterday in the heart of Tul Karm, a relatively senior wanted militant from Fatah was killed and his accomplice badly wounded; in the Gaza Strip, three gunmen were killed when they approached the Erez crossing. Before past conferences of this sort, orders were issued to maintain a lower profile; to make do for a few days with pursuing only “ticking bombs.” Yesterday there was one specific alert about a plan to dispatch a suicide bomber (that was the reason for the temporary high alert in Jerusalem).
Several lesser alerts exist, but the main fear is of “sleeper” cells hitting Israel without any warning.
Meanwhile, Syria sends in its RSVP–and its demands–to the Annapolis folly:
Syria announced Sunday that it would attend the Middle East peace meeting beginning here Monday night, joining Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab League participants in a turnabout that represented a victory for the Bush administration.
Syria, a supporter of groups opposed to a Palestinian peace with Israel, said it would send a deputy foreign minister to the meeting, which will continue on Tuesday in Annapolis, Md. In return, Syria was promised that Israel’s occupation of the Golan Heights, taken from Syria in the 1967 war, would be on the agenda.
Here’s the schedule:
The meeting opens on Monday evening, after President Bush has separate meetings with Mr. Olmert and Mr. Abbas, with a lavish dinner at the State Department. On Tuesday, at Annapolis, the three leaders will meet privately, then deliver speeches. Then there are, after lunch, three consecutive sessions: on bilateral Israeli-Palestinian peace; on efforts by the former British prime minister Tony Blair to help the Palestinians create the economy and institutions of a state; and on regional issues, including the Golan Heights and Lebanon.
On Wednesday, Mr. Bush will meet again, though separately, with Mr. Abbas and Mr. Olmert, with other issues on the Israeli agenda, like the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.
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Late breaking: A delegation of French Muslims will also be debating their recent offer, to halt violence in return for the
WestLeft Bank… film at 11:00I’m still hoping for success, but expect nothing new.
And pray it stays peaceful.
Here’s the way the compromise should go:
Israeli guy: If not a single rocket comes over our wall, we will not carpet bomb Gaza and the West Bank until they are utterly devoid of life. But as the first one comes over the wall… here come the planes.
Palestinian guy: That is ridiculous! You can’t… hey, why are you getting back into your car? We’re not done here! Come back!
The administration is specifically ruling out a three-state solution, which has long been my preference. (Better still if the three states were Egypt, Israel, and Jordan.) I propose we recognize the independent state of Gaza/Hamastan — and begin bombing right away.
This is nothing but trying to appease the terrorist scum at the expense of a REAL ally. The State Department should join the CIA and move to France. Why doesn’t any American President ever just say to the Palestinians, “You are alone. Go the to the Chinese or Russians for you next $200, 000,000.?”
Does it count when it’s his property?
Seriously, I realize expectations are low, by why do we have to rail on this before it even starts?
Are we no better than the Dems who declared the Surge a failure before the troops even left?
If you listen to the dialogue among the “key” Arab leaders, you always hear the word, ‘occupation’ referring to Israel. There will never be peace as far as the muslim/arab coalition goes as long as Israel exists. Bank on it, and I don’t mean the West Bank. God gave Abraham the land from the Nile to the Euphrates and he gave it to…no not Ishmael but Isaac. The true occupation is by the Arabs not the Israelis.
I believe that those mugs would shatter nicely against the sides of an IDF Merkava III tank in Gaza. If a French “youth” happens to get caught by a shard while commitiing an illegal act, we’ve got a twofer! Sell more mugs, I say!
Only the U.S. can put pressure on Israel, and considering we are in such a state of pathological submissiveness to Israel we don’t even protest such events as the attack on the USS Liberty and the killing of our sailors, the Israelis know they need not make any serious concessions.
And the Palestinians are so unreasonable they probably won’t accept a barren, waterless reservation as their state.
Probably the best solution would be for the weary international community to force a solution on the parties, but AIPAC would veto any US participation. So the conflict will probably drag on and gradually peter out much like the Indian wars in this country, with the Palestinians eventually accepting reservation life. Perhaps gambling casinos on Palestinian reservations would hasten acceptance.
The “Palestinians” don’t really exist as a people. All the negotiating in the world will not end the problems in the Middle East. Even if Palestine is given everything they want (as usual), the remainder of the nations in the region will find another excuse to try and wipe Israel off the map.
I’m afraid it will be back to ‘Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition’.
#6
Can you really be serious about us calling this a failure before it begins?
The PA has never wanted peace because they have no understanding of how to accept the joooooooos.
Their hate goes beyond any normalcy and they benefit from the UN and the EU by continuing to play the victims.
I would not personally want to see Israel give up on any piece of hard fought and won land.
This to will be a failure because they do not accept the Israeli’s as humans and when cannot accept that you can not deal with what you do not believe in.
The farce-that-is-Annapolis reminds me of the introduction to the movie “The Road Warrior,” in which the narrator describes how the politicians blew it on the way to Armageddon:
“The talked, and talked, and talked…”
The Iranians are busily building their nukes. The Syrians want to emulate them. The “Palestinians” are still teaching their kids how to slip on suicide vests to realize their parents’ sick dream of “From the River to the Sea.”
And all we want to do is… talk.
I’m afraid that our diplomats have lost the essential distinction between talk that leads to action, and talk that purports to be a substitute for it.
Our enemies have not made the same mistake, and properly see “diplomatic negotiations” for what they are: a way to gain time to make final preparations to clobber us.
I still propose a two-step “solution” to Middle East Peace:
1. Build the concrete wall, the ditch, the palisade, the triple concertina fence and the mine field around the Gaza Strip. Voila - there’s your “Palestinian State,” ready for business. After that, “diplomatic negotiations” on the subject can be summed up in one of two two-word phrases:
- If about the “Palestinians”: “Screw them.”
- If to the “Palestinians”: “F*ck you.”
Then we can move to Phase II of the Master Plan, which involves physically taking the Iranians’ atomic toys away before they hurt someone.
Oh, well. Guess I know why they didn’t invite me to Annapolis…
I don’t see a thing coming out of this summit. The Palestinians have violated every peace agreement and ceasefire ever made with Israel. I trust them about as far as they can throw a souvenir mug to smash it to the ground. If we are lucky maybe there will be some collateral damage on the peace loving people who are destroying the mugs. They can then film the victims in the emergency room and blame it on the IDF (like they always do).
Destroy the evil Zionist mugs for the sake of peace
Alphonse, Wasn’t the whole of Israel a desert? It was the sweat of the Israeli’s that made the desert bloom. And when Israeli’s vacated settlements with greenhouses and infrastructure, when the Palestinians came in afterwards they tore it all down. They don’t care to “build” a society, a country or even a single City for themselves. Arafat took the money given and squireled most of it away for himself or maybe some top aids. Not even Palestinian Leaders care about the future or current needs of their people. The Palestinians have Jordan. The Jordanians don’t want them because they are uncivilized. Jordan and the rest of the Arab Countries also want to use them as a thorn in the side of Israel. And why Israel hasn’t wiped them from the face of the planet, I’ll never know. Let Palestinians make the 1st moves: Acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and crack down hard on violence
against all things Israeli. Otherwise, they are uncivilized and the Bush Admin.
should walk away. Screw that as a legacy.
Israel has given up ground that it won in the 67 war and it has given up the Gaza. What have the Arabs given up? Anyway there will never be peace there till after the Lord Jesus comes and furthermore the Arabs will never eradicate Israel which is their hope to do.
Israel has given up ground that it won in the 67 war and it has given up the Gaza. What have the Arabs given up? Anyway there will never be peace there till after the Lord Jesus comes and furthermore the Arabs will never eradicate Israel which is their hope to do.
Does anyone know the odds line at Las Vegas on which Arab country walks out first in protest?