re peace talks in article may news columbia edu pgf cunixb cc columbia edu peter garfiel freeman writes in article bf f news service uci edu tclock orion oac uci edu tim clock writes in article may nysernet org astein nysernet org alan stein writes it seems that to keep the peace talks going israel has to keep making goodwill gesture after goodwill gesture while palestinian arabs continue to go around hunting jews you know that putting something like this out on the newsgroup is only going to generate flames not discussion try adding some substance to the issue of gestures you mentioned what is it you feel that israel has offered as a gesture what would you realistically expect to see presented by the arabs palestinians in the way of gesture timbo israel has not been recognized as a state by the arabs except for egypt of course isn t that a gesture what has israel offered well it has been calling for peace talks for years asked for economic relations and asked for diplomatic ties what else is there would you have israel sacrifice its security nay i think not peace pete yea i think not also israel s issue is security so any outcomes of negotiation certainly need to address isreal s perception of this issue the problem is is defining by outsiders by israel and by the arabs themselves what is the issue to the arab side is it palestinian statehood is it that israel as a state should not and must not be allowed to exist is it that the existence of a self governing non muslim state in the islamic world is intolerable what just as the dividing line between israel fighting for security and israel fighting to expand is often hard to discern by outsiders especially to the arab world so the rationale behind the arab struggle to undermine israel in any way could either be based on visceral rejectionism or a sense of being wronged that still values peace who knows which anyway in these talks what gestures would you think would be seen by israel as substantial tim clock ph d graduate student uci tel department of politics and society fax university of california irvine home tel irvine ca
