Comments on: Gaza: We’ve Heard from Barak, But Not Barack

By: amir

amir — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:04:53 +0000

When you haggle at the market you know what the goal is: to buy a shirt, for example, and you haggle over the price. The seller doesn’t start off by saying: pay the full price for the shirt and I’ll lend it to you “for a really long time.”
At the very least Hamas should honor, at least in principle, agreement reached by Fatah before them.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:49:29 +0000

If you go into negotiatins [sic], you should know what the goal of negotiatins [sic] are

That’s saying nothing. If you go into negotiations you know where you’d like to end up, but you don’t know how you’ll get there & you don’t have certainty you’ll get there; & both parties know that neither will end up precisely where IT would like to be. That’s why neither side reveals fully what it’s willing to give up BEFORE neogiations begin. That in effect concedes to the other party what you’re holding in reserve in order to seal a deal.

Haven’t you ever bargained in a shouk?? Do you tell the seller what the absolute highest price you’ll pay is BEFORE you begin haggling?

By: amir

amir — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:58:49 +0000

Israel has already accepted a two-state solution at the Annapolis conference. By accepting a two-state solution Hamas is not giving up any cards. If you go into negotiatins, you should know what the goal of negotiatins are. Hamas has said if Israel withdraws to ’67 borders they will offer a long term Hudna, this is nothing but a mockery. “land for hudna” is a non-starter.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:26:58 +0000

A very slick comment fella. Fully of substantive ideas that are terribly hard to refute. Regarding whether “it’s all been said before”…I wouldn’t know since you didn’t “say” anything except snark.

By: Kordan

Kordan — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 06:29:37 +0000

Do you even know where the middle east is, because you obviously dont know anything that were doing there or the recent history of that area. The only thing i think you understand about the middle east is that “bad stuff happens there”, i would go further but by the list of comments it looks like its all been said before.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:51:50 +0000

@amir: Let me throw it back at you: why doesn’t Israel state clearly that it is willing to negotiate with Hamas or that it is willing to accept Hamas as a legitimate political party for the Palestinians as long as it renounces terror, etc.???

You can’t place the onus all on Hamas. There are 2 equally stubborn parties here.

For Hamas, the only really valuable card it has is recognition. Why play the card even before there are serious negotiations? When a negotiating party has only a single card to play they save it for the dramatic moment in the negotiation & then they play the card as long as they feel they will gain something by playing it. In other words, I’m relatively sure if Israel were to negotiate in good faith with Hamas on comprehensive issues that Hamas would either be willing to recognize Israel or accept enough security guarantees that Israel could feel it would be safe even w/o such recognition. But Israel will never know this because it refuses to enter into such negotiations.

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:46:14 +0000

@len:

i’m black myself and a woman and proud of it

You’re about as much a black and a woman as my grandpa was the pope himself. When you state such patently false things it makes you look like an utter fraud & charlatan, which indeed you must be.

Thanks for resigning yr privileges as well. This site is clearly not racist enough for you but I can recommend many where you’d be more comfortable.

By: len

len — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:05:06 +0000

and by the way i’ll resign my ‘privileges’ and save you the trouble.