Israelis, Palestinians resume direct peace talks (Updated)

Yahoo News "After a day and evening in White House talks with President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sit down together Thursday for the first of what American officials hope will be a series of meetings that lead in a year's time to an agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state."

Arab News: Little hope of peace as talks begin in US "A top Palestinian official said Wednesday any resumption of Israeli settlement construction would spell the end of the peace talks. “The settlements must be halted and continuing them will signal the end of the peace process,” Palestinian spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told journalists. He was speaking after Netanyahu said there was no change in Israel’s position on ending the 10-month freeze on settlement construction."

Middle East Peace Talks: Déjà Vu all over again all over again "...When you got 98% or even 88% of what you wanted, did you walk away and start a war… okay, just walk away? And if you did, why did you do that … when you were so close to making a deal? You could obviously hang around in negotiations and get most, if not all, of what you wanted.
"Well, the answer is — no fair peeking — because you never wanted the deal in the first place."  Roger L Simon, Pajamas Media

Time pre-blames Israel for coming peace talks failure Time Magazine, whose politics, the head of our prep school history department used to tell us, were "as red as its cover," has decided to put the slam on Israel and Israelis in a carefully slanted article entitled "Why Israel Doesn't Care About Peace."

Lofty words, little hope  "Neither Netanyahu nor Abbas will arrive at the event overly cheerful; in any case they were dragged there involuntarily, just because the Obama Administration decided that September 26 is a date that cannot be reached without eliciting some agreement between the sides regarding the settlement construction freeze."   Yitzhak Benhorin, YNet News. Via Watching America

‘Direct Talks May ‘Make or Break’ Obama "...no one outside of the American government expresses optimism.
"“Obama realizes that he is unable to do anything and that his invitation for direct talks will turn out to be nothing more than a public relations campaign,' Ghazi Rababaa, political science professor at the University of Jordan, told the German Press Agency DPA. "The U.S. president's real objective behind calling direct talks at this juncture is to improve his Democratic Party's chances in the coming congressional elections and to prop up his retreating popularity.” " Arutz Sheva, Israel National News

Ramallah, A new heroic operation against Zionist settlers "Al Qassam website – Ezzedeen Al Qassam Brigades fullfill its series of promises by carrying out a new heroic operation against hatefull Zionist settlers in West Bank. On Wednesday, 1st of September ,Al Qassam members in the West Bank opened fire on a car driving near the illegal settlement of Kochav Hashachar and east of the West Bank city of Ramallah, at 11p.m."

Story and photos of heroic HAMAS victory from the HAMAS website.

Hamas' new methods: Multiple small attacks by unknown imported terrorists  "The problem is that Israel's leaders, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi oppose reinstalling the checkpoints and roadblocks for as long as the US-sponsored talks with the Palestinians continue.
"Hamas' tacticians are fully aware of Israel's diplomatic constraints and exploiting them to the full, ordering their terror squads to keep going in the hope of sabotaging the negotiations."