Annapolis Notes 1

In the lead article for yesterday's issue of Counterpunch, Oren Ben-Dor provides some important context for the upcoming Annapolis conference: as we mentioned in a recent NE post, Olmert has stressed that a "core issue" for the talks will be Palestine's recognition of Israel as a "Jewish state." As many critics have pointed out, Palestinian leaders have already recognized Israel as a state, and as Ben-Dor shows, this new wording has important implications. Also addressing this question is Uri Avnery in another article for the same publication. Avnery describes the conference as a "pipedream...without any preceding strategic planning, any careful preparations, anything much at all." Among other things, Avnery reminds us of the Knesset's very recent adoption of a bill that restricts any change of the borders of Greater Jerusalem without a 2/3 majority, in effect banning Olmert from giving up any Palestinian villages annexed to Jerusalem in 1967.