As yet unconfirmed reports in multiple media outlets suggest that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had secretly agreed to allow a “huge deployment” of NATO troops into a future Palestinian state.
Ironically this huge military presence is being sold as a means of guaranteeing that the state remains “demilitarized” after the end of the Israeli occupation. Abbas is said to have insisted that NATO would also be charged with protecting the nominally independent future state from future Israeli invasions.
One of the reports suggested that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had proposed the idea, and that it included 40,000 NATO troops for the West Bank.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat denied that any such thing was in discussion, saying there were no secret contacts at all with the international forces. He did however say that an international force would be “a natural thing” for a demilitarized Palestine.
The idea of a NATO occupation of the occupied territories has been proposed before, notably by current National Security Advisor James Jones when he was a NATO commander. Israeli military officials rejected the proposal.
This makes sense. NATO is big enough to combat Israel. Ensure that they deploy along the Green Line though.
Split the israel/palestine landmass 50/50, and put a k-4 style base in jerusalem… it's only fair
Oh my Palestinian friends, be careful what you wish for. Maybe ask the brothers and sisters in Iraq and Afghanistan about those helpful NATO protectors, before you invite them in.
nd our brothers and sisters in Haiti know something of the UN too
Not to worry, the Israelis won't allow it.
The very same Abbas who urged the Israeli's to continue bombing Gaza during the 22 day onslaught of winter 08/09? This man surely has very little popular credibility left.
Norman Finkelstein has also pointed out in the past that Abbas is a holocaust denier; in fact he wrote his PhD dissertation on this subject and "was so proud of it, he took it to Beirut to self-publish it." That this doesn't trouble the Israelis at all is very telling. He's a collaborator.
Abbas = Vichy. Israel is closely tied to NATO. That’s the same as being occupied by Nato, and Abbas knows it. I’m thinking that he just used up his last political life with the Palestinians. Would you want to live in an occupied ‘state’? Of course not. That wouldn’t be a state at all. What Israel is seeking is a legitimized apartheid, agreed to by Abbas and enforced by Nato.
I do firmly believe that there will be no agreement on Palestine as Muhaamad has already told the Muslims about the atrosities 1400 years ago and there will no change. We are constantly opressed in the whole world look a pipi state like Denemark has also shown the eyes about cartoons. This is a problem created by the west will continue to humiliate the Muslims arou´nd the world and is no surprise for the Muslims.
ghouri, Berlin
Ghouri –
Israel's theft and occupation of land in the ME (starting, arguably, in 1949) is absolutely criminal. This and the oppression of the Palestinians serves the unjust interests of the Western empire, that is clear, and it is hurtful and a great injustice to the Palestinians. I'm with you there. That said, if you wish to be humiliated you can always find a cause and a reason, with or without the "cartoons." I have no wish to foist my way of life onto you, but if you choose to live in the West then it is you who needs to adapt. Don't go moving to Berlin from Turkey and then being all offended and trying to force people to change because you don't like how they dress or what they believe. (I lived in Kreutzberg so I have seen the life there.) They and their way of life were there long before you , whether you were born there or not. Believe it or not, they have just as much right to their way of life as you do to yours. Your morality is no higher and no more pure than theirs, even if you think otherwise. You don't like it? Leave, or look away. Just like I would do (and did) in Muslim countries. That isn't about oppression, it's about respecting and NOT oppressing.
If it were 40,000 U.N. troops, that would be good news. But NATO? They are aggressors in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I'm not so sure Ellen. Google UN and Haiti, and it wont be long before you're wondering about the wisdom of sending in UN troops anywhere. As for NATO, since when have Iraq and Afghanistan been in the North Atlantic? It clearly is an army in need of a new name.
If is true… the idea is for US-NATO to occupy the entire Middle East from Israel – Lebanon to Pakistan.., this idea has been around since 1990s and in form of a letter Paul Wolfowitz and others was given to Bill Clinton to implement the idea, but first he had to give something to Europe in exchange and that was Yugoslavia to be dismantled. he had to do that to: first of all secure the Oil flow from Caspian sea to Europe which Yugoslavia was not agreed to. If that happens it means that US and EU government are the one who are going to dictate to you and everyone what to eat and what not to eat. The IMF and EU central Bank is going to be the one who owns you and your children.
The idea seems a bit contradictory. If there was an agreement on a two-state soultion, there would be no need to defend Palestine against Israel. If there is no such agreement, there can be no two state solution.
It's a good idea,but I think we all know that when the Israeli Lobby cracks the whip ,the U.S. will veto the measure,the Israelis want all the Palestinian land and their Representatives in Washington will do everything they can to help them get it.
Time to dissolve NATO.