Gary Bauer Says Two-State Solution Not a Synonym for Peace

/PRNewswire/ -- Former presidential candidate Gary Bauer on Friday in an exclusive analysis piece at Politico said that the "two-state solution" so popular with the media when covering Middle East peace talks is "not a synonym for peace."

As direct peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians began this week, Bauer detailed some of the problems that make forcing a two-state solution a mistake for those caught up in the violence of present day Middle East conflicts.

Bauer, the president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families, noted: "As a strong supporter of Israel and its right to exist in peace and security as a Jewish state, I have sometimes been criticized for my skepticism about a two-state solution. But invoking the two-state mantra is not a panacea for what ails the Middle East. Two-state advocates differ wildly about what form each state would take. More fundamentally, there is voluminous evidence that many Palestinians, including groups like Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, desire not two states but the destruction of Israel.

Late in the piece, Bauer wrote, "I cannot accept a two state solution until I know what those states would look like, where they would be located, and until I'm sure that the ultimate result would not be the destruction of Israel as an independent Jewish state. The creation of two states may well be part of the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But we do all parties involved a disservice by pretending that it is a synonym for peace."

AJC Welcomes Secretary of State Clinton Announcement of New Direct Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks

/PRNewswire/ -- AJC (American Jewish Committee) welcomed today's announcement by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will resume in early September.

Clinton said the U.S. believes "the direct talks to resolve all final-status issues" can be completed in one year. "These talks should take place without preconditions," she said.

"This is encouraging news and instills a ray of hope for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace," said AJC Executive Director David Harris. "Secretary Clinton and Special Envoy George Mitchell have done a yeoman's job in achieving this breakthrough, securing agreement from the Palestinians to return to direct talks with Israel, which provide the likeliest path for moving the process forward."

Clinton announced that President Obama has invited Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Palestinian President Abbas, Egyptian President Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah to a dinner on September 1. The following day, Clinton will meet with Netanyahu and Abbas at the State Department to officially announce the resumption of direct peace negotiations.

Libertarians suggest Nobel announcements should be moved to April Fool's Day

The Libertarian Party today suggested that, in the future, the announcement date every year for Nobel Prizes be moved to April 1.

"Unlike the gullible people who listened to The War of the Worlds radio broadcast in 1938 and thought Martians really were attacking the United States, when I heard this morning that Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I changed the channel in disbelief. But, the same thing was being said in multiple places," Libertarian National Committee Chairman William Redpath said.

"The gravity of the Nobel awards has not been augmented by some of their recent selections, including today's announcement, last year's award of the Economics prize to Paul Krugman, or the 2007 Peace Prize to Al Gore, whose global warming theories he will not defend in open debate. Maybe an early Springtime announcement date would be more appropriate."

Redpath continued, "I didn't know that it was the role of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee to be handicapping the future performance of individuals and organizations. Nonetheless, we congratulate President Obama on his award and hope that three-and-a-quarter or seven-and-a-quarter years from now the Nobel Peace Prize Committee will be seen as prescient.

"President Obama will best fulfill the promise of peace that the Nobel Committee apparently sees in him by not trying to cure all the ills of the world, but by working to make the United States an example for the other nations of the world through implementation of a Libertarian foreign policy--military non-interventionism combined with free trade policies in fact, and not just in rhetoric. With those guiding principles, the world will be a freer, safer and more prosperous planet at the conclusion of the Obama Administration."

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