Middle East Peace Talks - 2010 - deja vue

[Lamplighter]

Here is an small interesting article about Ariel, a "settlement" that will play an extremely important part in the total negotiations:

NY Times article

A West Bank Enclave Is on Edge
By ISABEL KERSHNER
Published: September 9, 2010

Ariel was founded in 1978 in a West Bank security move.

When scores of leftist Israeli academics, prominent writers and intellectuals said that they would not lecture at the Ariel University Center or in any other settlement, many here said that nobody had asked them to come.
But the protest broadened again this week when an American advocacy group, Jewish Voice for Peace, said that more than 150 international film and theater professionals, including Julianne Moore, Theodore Bikel, Vanessa Redgrave and Tony Kushner, had endorsed its statement in support of Israeli artists against performing in the settlements, which are viewed by much of the world as a violation of international law.

Here is the problem and the solution to real peace:

In January, to mark Jewish Arbor Day, Israel’s conservative-leaning prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, planted a sapling in Ariel. He declared it the “capital of Samaria” and an integral part of Israel. But Oren Ben Uziyahu, the owner of a toy store in Ariel, said that in return for genuine peace, most people would “leave behind their fake leather couches” and give up their Ariel homes. “It is reasonable to assume,” he continued, “that in the end, Ariel will have to go.”