Palestinian State

Will Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement that he accepts the idea of a Palestinian state help move the Middle East toward peace? Yes 25% No 63% Not sure 12% (295 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Is the Baltimore Police Department doing a good job of responding to increased reports of criminal activity in and around the Inner Harbor? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

KAL's cartoon of March 24 depicting President Barack Obama disinterring a dove representing the two-state solution, only to see the dove shot at by "Israeli extremists" and "Palestinian extremists" is witty, clever, and inaccurate. The cartoon lazily rehashes the simplistic but false narrative that zealots on both sides are responsible for continuation of the conflict and equally to blame for the lack of a peaceful resolution. In reality, the fact that in 2013, a Palestinian state does not exist is attributable to the 1947 Arab rejection of the UN partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states; Yasir Arafat's 2000 rejection of the contiguous Palestinian state offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in negotiations at Taba; and President Mahmoud Abbas' 2008 rejection of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's offer of a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank.

Progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict tends to be painfully incremental. But marginal progress is better than none at all, which is why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement Sunday that he is willing to accept a Palestinian state is a welcome development - even if it doesn't go nearly far enough. With Mr. Netanyahu's speech, a milestone has been reached. From this day forward, there can no longer be any serious debate about whether a Palestinian state will (or should)

JERUSALEM -- Israel is constructing a road through the West Bank, east of Jerusalem, that will allow both Israelis and Palestinians to travel along it - separately. There are two pairs of lanes, one for each group of people, separated by a tall wall of concrete patterned to look like Jerusalem stones, a beautification effort indicating that the road is meant to be permanent. The Israeli side has many exits; the Palestinian side has few. The point of the road, according to those who planned it under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is to permit Israel to build more settlements around East Jerusalem, cutting the city off from the West Bank, but allowing Palestinians to travel unimpeded north and south through Israeli-held land.

The Sun reports ("Bid for statehood may end; Possible deal delays U.N. debate, retains aid to Palestinians," September 21) that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas "decided to approach the U.N. this year [for statehood recognition] because of his frustration that after nearly two decades of U.S.-led negotiations, the long-promised separate Palestinian state had not materialized. " That's one way of putting it, but it's Palestinian spin. It's Palestinian rejectionism that has frustrated U.S. diplomacy.

The article "Social networks as a grass-roots approach to Mideast peace" ( July 18 ) misses the point when it lists the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's core issues as "...mutual recognition and respect, ideology and dignity. " In fact, there are four key issues involved: borders, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. Unfortunately, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to even discuss, much less negotiate, any of these issues. Instead, what Israel wants is to continue stealing more Palestinian land and water in occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem while maintaining its strangulation blockade on the civilian population ofGaza.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- While Palestinian leaders debated postponing a decision to declare statehood yesterday, Mohammed Abu Barri picked up his children's new green passports issued in the name of a country that doesn't exist. The passport was stamped with "The Palestinian Authority." Abu Barri, 40, doesn't mind that it is not accepted around the world yet. He wants an independent Palestine declared when his leaders -- and the world -- are ready for it. "The establishment of a Palestinian state is inevitable," he said.

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- Scrambling to shape an agenda for a fall peace conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israeli and Palestinian leaders yesterday to start tackling the core issues impeding settlement of their decades-old conflict. But Israeli officials told Rice it was too soon to discuss "final status" issues, in part because their negotiating partner, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, has yet to prove capable of stopping attacks on Israel by armed Palestinian groups.

Soon after Jimmy Carter announced that the militant group Hamas was prepared to accept Israel's "right to live as a neighbor in peace" beside a Palestinian state, Hamas' political leader begged to differ. Hamas would not recognize Israel's right to exist, Khaled Mashaal said from Damascus; it would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders. That clarification was a revealing addendum to Mr. Carter's trip to the Middle East, which ended Monday. This is not something that got lost in translation.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Of many standing ovations at the Shawwa Cultural Center yesterday, one of the warmest went to the other Clinton in the house, the U.S. president's wife, Hillary.Welcomed by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat as a "great and generous guest," Hillary Rodham Clinton beamed to the audience, her daughter, Chelsea, at her side. Mrs. Clinton and Arafat's wife, Suha, seemed genuinely friendly, walking arm in arm and whispering to each other as though sharing confidences.Mrs.