 WHY ARE 1967 BORDERS INDEFENSIBLE?
 President Obama said last Thursday the United States believes Israel should go back to the 1967 borders as part of the peace agreement with the Palestinian Authority. In a very unexpected move, on Friday, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "Thanks, but no, thanks!" The main reason for this is the 1967 borders are simply non-defensible! Israel is surrounded by enemies on every side. The recent uprisings in Egypt, as well as protests in Egypt, as well as Jordan are giving way to anti-Israel protests in both countries. While President Mubarak was tolerant towards Israel and kept the peace agreement with her, and King Abdullah still is, the forces on the ground are taking advantage of the mass demonstrations and inciting the people against Israel, demanding to break these agreements and destroy Israel. This week's video was sent out by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. It shows with clear animation and outstanding graphics why the 1967 borders are simply indefensible, reiterating again how critical the issue of Israel's security is... WATCH VIDEO WATCH Prime Minister Netanyahu's Congress Address
WATCH Prime Minister Netanyahu's AIPAC speech NETANYAHU TELLS CONGRESS JERUSALEM WILL NOT BE DIVIDED Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the United States Congress in an historic and much anticipated speech on Tuesday. Netanyahu urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to tear up the pact with Hamas and recognize a Jewish state and also noted that Israel will withdraw from some West Bank settlements. Netanyahu received a particularly warm welcome in Congress. "I'm deeply moved by this warm welcome and I'm deeply honored that you've given me the opportunity to address this congress for the second time," he said. "I see a lot of old friends here and a lot of new friends as well, democrats and republicans alike," he noted. "Israel has no better friend than America and America has no better friend than Israel." Netanyahu declared "I am willing to make painful compromises to achieve peace. As a leader it's my responsibility to lead my people to peace. It's not easy, because I recognize that in a genuine peace we will be required to give up parts of the ancestral Jewish homeland." He added: "We'll be generous about the size of the Palestinian state but as Obama said the border will be different than 1948. Israel will not return to the border of 1967." Netanyahu stressed that Israel is not a colonial power. "The Jewish people are not foreign occupiers. We're not the British in India, or the Belgians in the Congo. This is the land of our forefathers… no distortion of history will deny the 4,000-year-old bond between the Jewish people and the Jewish land." Netanyahu reminded Congress again that Israel is the only democracy in a turbulent Middle East. "In an unstable Mideast, Israel is the one anchor of stability," he said and noted Israel will always be America's friend. (Extracted from Ynet News, 5/24/11) PA REACTS TO NETANYAHU'S SPEECH  The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress and said that his policies won’t lead to peace. The PA also rejected Netanyahu’s call for cancelling the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Nabil Abu Rudaineh, spokesman for PA President Mahmoud Abbas, said that the PA won’t agree to any Israeli presence in a Palestinian state (referring to Netanyahu’s statement that Israel would maintain control over the Jordan Valley). “We won’t accept any Israeli presence in the Palestinian state, especially along the Jordan River,” Abu Rudaineh said. “What Netanyahu proposed in his speech won’t lead to peace, but would instead place more obstacles in front of the peace process.” Abu Rudaineh said that for the Palestinians, peace means the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 lines with east Jerusalem as its capital. “Peace must be achieved on the basis of international legitimacy and negotiations and not on the basis of pre-conditions [REALLY??] and obstacles to peace,” he added. PLO official Saeb Erekat said that Netanyahu’s speech proved to Palestinians and Arabs that they don’t have a peace partner in Israel. He also rejected Netanyahu’s call for scrapping the reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. He said that the PA won’t abandon the accord in any way “because peace is based on reconciliation.” Erekat said that Netanyahu is “not a man of peace and did not bring anything new.” He also accused Netanyahu of “mixing history with geography” in his speech. (Extracted from JPost, 5/24/11) HAMAS SAYS OBAMA'S PLAN SIMILAR TO BUSH'S  The difference in tone between US President Barack Obama's two policy speeches on Mideast peace sparked outrage among Palestinian leaders Monday. Hamas spokesman Mahmoud al-Zahar responded by saying, "Clearly Obama's plan is no different, aside from a few small details, from that of George Bush. Now he refers to the 1967 borders as sacred, but who says we accept them, and that we won't speak of the '48 lines?" he told al-Emarat al-Youm.
He added that Obama was trying to pull wool over the Palestinian people's eyes and thus doing them harm. "Obama wants to place us within 22% of the area of Palestine," he said, referring to the entire State of Israel. "He speaks of land exchanges, but the issue of exchanging territory takes away from Jerusalem. He wants to give Jerusalem to the Israelis and give us just 5% of historical Palestine, which was originally our land, and this is just a trick." Obama also criticized a Palestinian plan to declare independence at the UN General Assembly in September. "We understood Obama's speech, which said that if the Palestinians go to the UN they will achieve nothing, but (Abbas) needs to understand this too, as he clings to hope for achievements in September," al-Zahar said. (Extracted from Ynet News, 5/23/11) | 
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