do you believe isreal should have attacked Gaza in operation cast lead (831)

NOW ISNT THAT SO SWEET

WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials are hopeful they can break an impasse that has threatened to kill new U.S.-brokered Mideast peace talks before they really begin.

A U.S. official close to the negotiations said Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems likely to cut a deal to keep the talks going. Palestinian officials said much the same, and Israeli officials said Netanyahu does not want talks to founder.

All spoke on condition of anonymity because the deliberations are closed and no decisions have been made. All the parties have previously said they want to continue negotiations, but the talks remain in limbo.

Without a compromise over the issue of Israeli settlement-building on disputed ground, the peace negotiations so strenuously sought by the Obama administration seem headed for collapse.

The White House is working furiously, applying pressure, floating proposals and making promises to both sides, before a Friday gathering of Arab leaders whose backing the Palestinians need in order to go forward.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Wednesday with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who represents the "Quartet" of international Mideast peacemakers, to try to find a solution. On Tuesday she spoke with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

Clinton, special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and Dennis Ross, the National Security Council's Mideast policy adviser, have been working with Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and their top negotiators.

Unless the United States and Israel can make a deal to at least postpone further building, all sides expect the Palestinians to walk away.

"We're at a critical stage in the process," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday.

"We want to see the negotiations continue," he said. "We don't want to see the parties step away from this process, and we continue to offer ideas to both sides as to how to navigate through the settlement issue that currently confronts us."

An Israeli official said Netanyahu was sounding out colleagues on a proposal to extend the slowdown for 60 days. Four of Israel's seven cabinet ministers were opposed, the official said. Netanyahu's own position was not clear.

U.S. officials caution that they do not know exactly what Netanyahu will do. For some Israeli politicians in his complex governing coalition, the collapse of talks, and an opportunity to blame both the United States and the Palestinians for it, would be a welcome outcome.

In Ramallah, there appeared to be widespread expectation Wednesday that Israel would ultimately agree on a U.S.-backed compromise before the 22-member Arab League begins its meeting. Abbas is expected to announce a decision on continuing the talks at that meeting.

Several senior Palestinians said the U.S. has proposed the two-month extension of the building moratorium.

Abbas has repeatedly said he can't negotiate if Israel does not extend the curbs on construction. New Jewish houses in the West Bank complicate the peace talk goal of drawing secure borders between Israel and a new Palestinian state. Most of the land Palestinians claim for that state is in the West Bank.

Israeli officials said the Netanyahu government has indirectly asked the Arab League to postpone a final decision on continuing peace talks and give Netanyahu more time to marshal support for a compromise.

The United States and Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel, have served as intermediaries, the officials said.

Netanyahu initially said he would not renew the moratorium, which expired last week. The United States had hoped he would agree to an extension before the moratorium ran out, and some officials have privately acknowledged that Netanyahu's refusal has eroded U.S.leverage.

WHY ARGUE WITH YOU WE NO YOU WONT CHANGE,YOUR PAID TO BE RUDE

Not too much I'm sure. BamaGary was a pro, this guy is amateur.

WASHINGTON — Amid uncertainty over whether Israel will act to prevent the Palestinians from walking out of nascent U.S.-mediated peace talks, the Obama administration is seeking Arab support for keeping the negotiations alive.

As Arab leaders and foreign ministers prepare to meet in Libya beginning Friday, U.S. officials have spent days trying to persuade them not to withdraw their earlier backing for the talks. Arab support is seen as key for the Palestinians to stay at the table, especially if Israel does not renew a partial freeze on West Bank settlements.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has threatened to walk out of the negotiations if the freeze is not extended. Despite frantic American efforts, including the offer of a broad package of security and political incentives, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not yet been convinced to do that.

U.S. officials hold out hope that Netanyahu will soon agree, perhaps this weekend, to a one-time, limited extension of the 10-month slowdown on West Bank settlement construction.

But their immediate focus is on the Arab League, whose backing would give Abbas political cover to stay in the talks without one.

"We want to see a positive signal come out tomorrow ... about keeping negotiations on track," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday. "That is our goal, fundamentally. We want to see negotiations continue."

To that end, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and special Mideast envoy George Mitchell have been making calls to Arab leaders since the beginning of the week, he said.

In a call to Abbas on Thursday, Clinton and the Palestinian leader "discussed the status of negotiations and steps going forward," the State Department said.

Mitchell and members of his team spoke to officials from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Oman and Kuwait, the department said.

Arab League backing is not guaranteed and several key members — including Egypt and Jordan, the only two with peace deals with Israel — have said they would support a Palestinians refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it continues to build West Bank settlements. Still, Egypt and Jordan have called for more efforts to salvage the talks.

Several U.S. officials said they were optimistic that the Arab League meetings would not end with a call for the Palestinians to abandon the talks. These officials said they expected rancor from some Arab states, notably Syria, but that other more moderate nations would prevail.

U.S. support at the U.N., recognition of Israel's security needs in the West Bank, enhanced military aid and a promise to build regional consensus about the threat posed by Iran.

But one former official with knowledge of the secretive American proposals now before Netanyahu said they are vague, particularly about the composition of a security force in the Jordan Valley after a peace deal is signed.

The former official said the U.S. has proposed to "recognize Israel's security concerns and needs in the Jordan Valley as they exist today." The official said the proposal stops well short of endorsing an Israeli Army presence there, something that Israel has sought but which the Palestinians adamantly oppose.

The language could be used, however, to signal that the United States would not object to international peacekeepers in the Jordan Valley, possibly with Israeli participation.

On Thursday, Israel signed a contract to buy American-made F-35 stealth fighter jets that will significantly strengthen Israel's military. The planes will able to reach Iran undetected by radar. Israel considers Iran a strategic threat, citing its calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, its suspect nuclear program and missiles.

The United States had agreed during President George W. Bush's administration to upgrade its strategic cooperation with Israel and supply it with $30 billion in advanced weaponry and equipment.

IRVINE, Calif. — After months of growing tension between Jewish and Muslim students at the University of California, Irvine, the Zionist Organization of America is asking potential students to apply elsewhere and donors to stop sending contributions.

The New York-based organization lambasted Chancellor Michael Drake in a statement Tuesday for not condemning anti-Semitic speech on campus and enabling a years-long history of "bigotry, discrimination and the violation of civil rights" by the school's Muslim Student Union.

"We're not asking the university to infringe on anyone's free speech rights, but our contention all along is that the chancellor has his own free speech rights, and for whatever reason, he's refusing to exercise them," said Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA's Center for Law and Justice. "He can come out and condemn the speech as hurtful and anti-Semitic."

Drake and the school had no comment on the statement, spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said.

Hadeer Soliman, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Student Union, did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.

Tension around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has spilled onto campus at several other universities lately as well.

Pro-Palestinian students have disrupted speeches by prominent Israeli speakers at Oxford University, in England, at the University of Chicago and at the University of California, Los Angeles.

A talk by a group called J Street, which backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also stirred a backlash at the University of Pennsylvania last month.

But tension has simmered between Jewish and Muslim student groups for years at UC Irvine, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and discourse between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students has been particularly vitriolic.

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IRVINE, Calif. — After months of growing tension between Jewish and Muslim students at the University of California, Irvine, the Zionist Organization of America is asking potential students to apply elsewhere and donors to stop sending contributions.

The New York-based organization lambasted Chancellor Michael Drake in a statement Tuesday for not condemning anti-Semitic speech on campus and enabling a years-long history of "bigotry, discrimination and the violation of civil rights" by the school's Muslim Student Union.

"We're not asking the university to infringe on anyone's free speech rights, but our contention all along is that the chancellor has his own free speech rights, and for whatever reason, he's refusing to exercise them," said Susan Tuchman, director of the ZOA's Center for Law and Justice. "He can come out and condemn the speech as hurtful and anti-Semitic."

Drake and the school had no comment on the statement, spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon said.

Hadeer Soliman, a spokeswoman for the Muslim Student Union, did not immediately return an e-mail seeking comment.

Tension around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has spilled onto campus at several other universities lately as well.

Pro-Palestinian students have disrupted speeches by prominent Israeli speakers at Oxford University, in England, at the University of Chicago and at the University of California, Los Angeles.

A talk by a group called J Street, which backs a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, also stirred a backlash at the University of Pennsylvania last month.

But tension has simmered between Jewish and Muslim student groups for years at UC Irvine, about 40 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and discourse between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students has been particularly vitriolic.

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They breed hate here too. They just can't be seen talking rationally or peacefully,even in the west.

WE BREED BOMBS HERE.IF WE DONT DO WHAT WE TELL YOU, MORE THAN RAIN FROM ABOVE WILL FALL.PEACE AND THEN COMES THE KNIFE

Where, in Long Plain?