Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/egypt-warns-israel-don-t-interfere-with-opening-of-gaza-border-crossing-1.358969

Chief of Staff of the Egyptian Armed Forces General Sami Anan warned Israel against interfering with Egypt's plan to open the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on a permanent basis, saying it was not a matter of Israel's concern, Army Radio reported on Saturday.

Egypt announced this week that it intended to permanently open the border crossing with Gaza within the next few days.

The announcement indicates a significant change in the policy on Gaza, which before Egypt's uprising, was operated in conjunction with Israel. The opening of Rafah will allow the flow of people and goods in and out of Gaza without Israeli permission or supervision, which has not been the case up until now.

An Israeli official on Friday told The Wall Street Journal that Israel was troubled by the recent developments in Egypt saying they could affect Israel's national security at a strategic level.

Israel's blockade on Gaza has been a policy used in conjunction with Egyptian police to weaken Hamas, which has ruled over the strip since 2007.

it would certainly be good to see israel finally brought to its senses, but whether or not the aftermath will be any more peaceful remains to be seen - and all will be several years away

Things may hot up come September. If Palestinine declares itself as a state as is expected and the UN accepts it then one consequence will be that Israel becomes an occupying force in another sovereign state. That will inevitably bring the possibility of direct sanctions from the UN against Israel if they do not withdraw. Of course, if they do withdraw then you can expect the new state of Palestine to expell the 500,000 Israeli settlers and then allow Palestinian refugees from Jordan, Lebanon etc to replace them.

The other more immediate consequences are that as part of the agreeement to be signed next Wesnesday, Hamas has specified that it requires the freeing of hundreds if not thousands of political prisoners arrested by the PA (close to 100% are Hamas members in the West Bank). The other request is that Fatah change their stance and not recognise Israel anymore.

you are getting way way ahead of the game .... at the moment it is all posturing and jockeying for position .... i'm not sure from where you get you 500,000, but knowing your previous rantings, i suppose you foresee the destruction of israel and the whole of israel being re-defined as palestine - if so and to put it mildly, don't be so bloody silly

It is a figure widely accepted. It includes settlements in East Jerusalem as well. The figure is mentioned by Reuters, the BBC, wikipedia.

widely accepted by whom and covering what precise area?

This was 3 years ago

B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members.

http://www.btselem.org/english/settlements/statistics.asp

The Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories

In 2008, there were an estimated 478,000 settlers living in the West Bank: some 188,100 in neighborhoods in East Jerusalem, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, and some 290,700 in the rest of the West Bank, according to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13264688

Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim is due to lead an orchestra of European musicians in a "peace concert" in Gaza.

It is the first-ever performance in the Palestinian territory by an international classical ensemble.

Israel forbids its civilian citizens from travelling to Gaza, so Barenboim is entering via Egypt, along with 25 musicians.

For years, Daniel Barenboim has used music to try to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Israeli government has previously blocked attempts by Barenboim to perform in Gaza. His entry through Egypt's Rafah crossing comes amid Israeli criticism of plans by Egypt's new military rulers to open up the border, our correspondent says.

hats off to DB!

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=219281

Guardian reports UK to consider supporting Palestinian UN statehood bid if Israel fails to join peace talks, Sarkozy says same to "L'Express."

Hours after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with his British counterpart David Cameron and on the eve of his planned meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday, foreign sources said that both heads of state have threatened to support the Palestinians' statehood bid in the UN if there is no progress in peace talks.

The Guardian quoted a diplomatic source as saying Cameron told Netanyahu that Britain would consider supporting a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians if Israel fails to join substantive peace talks to create a two-state solution.

for myself, i have long thought that there should be palestinian homeland/state, and have regularly posted as much ..... but apart from anything else, covering exactly what area?

The intended declaration will be 1967 borders.

no doubt that will give a fair bit of wriggle room, and at least it's away from the nonsense of israel's "no right" to exist platform

which parrot's hamas friends are still repeating

required for domestic consumption regardless of true view

Of course the 1967 boders solution also includes not only stopping settlements, but also the removal of ALL settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

didn't know you were on the hamas negotiating team .... for myself, i'll just watch with interest and hope that, like with northern ireland, a solution that is unhappy for both sides (the best kind) will be brokered in the coming 2/3 years

I am only quoting what Hamas said yesterday. I also suspect that the 1967 proposal is a starting point for Hamas. Once they get those borders they may want 1948 borders which is quite a bit better but not quite the end objective.

what you want and what you get can often be poles apart .... as in selling a house

As received,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"
Published 03:32 29.04.11
Latest update 03:32 29.04.11

The legal tsunami is on its way
The significance of a Palestinian state joining the UN is that, for the first time, it will be the Palestinians who will decide what the international legal framework is that is binding in their territory.

By Michael Sfard

Israels cautious foreign policy on legal matters over the past 44 years is likely to collapse in September. The mechanisms of legal defense that it built since the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to combat the danger of international jurisdiction about its conduct toward millions of people who are under its control, are likely to turn into dust at the stroke of the diplomatic moves.

If indeed the international community recognizes a Palestinian state, the question whether officers in the Israel Defense Forces who are involved in assassinations, shooting at unarmed demonstrators and using phosphorus bombs will be interrogated and brought to trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague and the question of whether international human rights treaties ‏(and other treaties‏) will obligate Israel during action in the territories, will no longer be decided in the government offices in Jerusalem but rather in the corridors of the Muqataa in Ramallah.

Together with the diplomatic tsunami that Defense Minister Ehud Barak has forecast, Israel can expect a legal tsunami, which for the first time will claim a price for violating human rights in the occupied territories.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the prolonged occupation of the Palestinian territories that Israel conquered in 1967, are not an internal Israeli issue. This is an international conflict in which the international community has a legitimate interest.

However, during the years of the occupation the state of Israel has repelled the professional legal mechanisms of the United Nations, that deal with protecting human rights, from discussing its actions there. Thus, for example, Israel refrained from granting authority to the UN Committee on Human Rights to discuss complaints from Palestinians against the IDF. ‏

(The committee is a professional body that consists of world renowned experts in human rights law, as opposed to the Council on Human Rights, which is a political body composed of representatives of countries.‏)

In a similar vein, in the territories Israel refused to apply the various human rights treaties that deal, inter alia, with discrimination against women; rights of the child; racial and other discrimination; and torture. Some of Israels most talented advocates were sent to Geneva to claim that these treaties were not binding on Israel beyond the Green Line.

Israel considers itself the representative of the victims and survivors of the Holocaust, and as such was one of the initiators of the establishment of an international criminal court for war crimes. The height of jurisdictional isolation came when Israel decided not to ratify the courts statute so as not to grant it authority to investigate and discuss crimes that, allegedly, were/are being carried out by Israeli officers and soldiers.

Over the course of 44 years, Israel has succeeded in putting the job of judging its actions in the occupied territories in the hands of the High Court of Justice, which approved almost every policy and practice of the army in the territories, deepening the occupation and making possible massive violations of human rights under its patronage.

Israel succeeded in leaving the investigations of its crimes to military advocates/attorneys who made sure that the policy of investigation would be such that enforcing the rigor of the law on soldiers and officers who had violated it would be a sort of miracle.

All of this is about to come to an end. Judging Israels actions in the sphere of human rights is apparently about to be placed in the hands of the nations of the world. To become internationalized.

If indeed Palestine is accepted as a full member of the UN in September, the button controlling jurisdiction over events that will take place in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will, to a large extent, be transferred from Jerusalem to Ramallah, from Benjamin Netanyahu to Mahmoud Abbas − because the significance of accepting Palestine as a member of the UN is that the new member will be sovereign to sign international treaties, to join international agreements and to receive the jurisdictional authority of international tribunals over what happens in its territory.

The young state of Palestine will act wisely if it decides, immediately on joining the UN, to sign all the major human rights treaties and all the clauses or protocols that grant its professional bodies the authority to discuss claims by civilians of violation of their rights.

If the Palestinian government also decides to sign and ratify the international criminal courts Rome Statute, the territories of the West Bank and Gaza will fall under the international tribunals authority to investigate and prosecute.

The significance of a Palestinian state joining the UN is that, for the first time, it will be the Palestinians who will decide what the international legal framework is that is binding in their territory. After more than 40 years in the wilderness of the occupation, the Palestinians will have the possibility of influencing their fate through legal means.

Attorney Michael Sfard is the legal adviser for the Yesh Din human rights organization."