2008

The end of Zionism is in sight, brought to us by the very hands that created the binational reality on the ground in the name of Zionism.

The Annapolis conference in Maryland held in 2007 and sponsored by President Bush, fell short of achieving its aim of concluding a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of 2008. Even so, Mr Bush can now leave office knowing that the aims of Annapolis have at least been enshrined in UN Security Council Resolution 1850 which passed without opposition on Tuesday.

“What that resolution does,” said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, “is to put the international community on record in believing in the irreversibility of the Annapolis process – bilateral negotiations toward a two-state solution, a comprehensive solution, and the various principles of Annapolis and what the parties have established since then.” The peace process has become “the Annapolis process”. What if anything that process will yield in 2009 is far from clear. An international meeting in Moscow is under consideration.

Gershon Baskin founded the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information is a bastion of coexistence initiatives that participates in Track II diplomacy (informal diplomacy, in which non-officials engage in dialogue, with the aim of conflict resolution or confidence-building) between Israelis and Palestinians and also focuses on peace education and environment and water issues.

Gershon Baskin testified this week that security guards had accosted him to prevent him from photographing the construction site and threatened him with police arrest.

Gershon Baskin writes to President-Elect Obama citing Rabbi Froman who envisages a shared Jerusalem where the Old City, containing the main sites sacred to Muslims, Christians and Jews, is ex-territoria, a Jerusalem that houses the headquarters for international institutions.