Israel calls off truce talks with Arafat JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel has called off planned truce talks with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, weakening hopes of ending almost a year of violence. An Israeli political source said Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, at the behest of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, would not meet Arafat for talks which had been provisionally scheduled for Gaza on Sunday. "There won't be a meeting tomorrow. Peres still wants to meet Arafat but Sharon thinks a meeting would be harmful at this time," the source said, adding there were no immediate plans to reschedule the talks. Palestinians and Western diplomats had said earlier in the day that they expected the meeting to go ahead in Gaza, but there was little hope of significant progress in the talks. "Sharon is showing his true face. All he wants is to continue his aggression against the Palestinians," Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told Reuters in response to the cancellation of the talks. Sharon had been locked in disagreement over the issue with the dovish Peres, who had suggested failure to maintain a dialogue could harm Washington's efforts to rally Arab nations to its call for an international alliance to fight terrorism following Tuesday's attacks on the United States. The Israeli leader, insisting there be an end to violence before peace talks resume, accuses Arafat of failing to clamp down on militants in his Palestinian Authority and has compared the Palestinian leader to Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden. The United States has named Saudi-born bin Laden as the prime suspect in the devastating hijack-suicide attacks on New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon in Washington. Violence in which at least 575 Palestinians and 166 Israelis have died since last September has continued unabated in recent days, including Israeli missile strikes on Gaza on Saturday and Palestinian mortar and grenade attacks on Israeli targets. I find this unacceptable. The only thing that has changed is that we were attacked, and now Sharon can try to use it to his advantage, creating metaphors.
I agree. Though I believe both sides have not acted with good intentions leading to these talks, Sharon's insistence that there be an end to violence before peace talks can resume makes zero sense at all. If the violence were to somehow magically end, there would be no need for peace talks anyways. Both sides have committed heinous acts to the other in the past decades. No progess will ever be made if each sides leaders continue to behave like this.
Pitiful. Sharon is ruining any chance for peace, but then I guess the Israelis elected him for his hawkish stance in the first place. Too bad a great diplomat like Peres is continually ignored.
This is really messing up my interpretation of the Democratic Peace theory. I hope not, but THE END could be coming.
It is terrible to see the Israeli's USING this situation to benefit their causes... Of all the time where you'd think they'd show at least a little heart and empathy... The middle east just has NO solution...there is none. These people are determined to fight to the death...they've been fighting for centuries... I really don't know if there is any solution anymore...
