don't come. in from three thirty pm moscow time these are the top stories on our t.v. the rocks deadliest day of the year ninety three dead as a series of attacks targets security forces to comes just after the al qaeda leader in the country threatens a vibrant research. as syrian troops drive rebels out of the capital suburbs here striving moves to aleppo the country's largest city in the key stronghold of president on friday. and fears of state snooping. of the nearly twelve hundred government requests for user data filed in the first half of this year nearly eighty percent came from the us government. topamax artes and peter the bow

and crosstalk. hello and welcome to cross talk i'm here a little occupation what are the patient the recently published report mine is really judge concluded that israel is not in fact occupying palestinian territories has engendered a wide array of emotions and outrage after forty five years what should we call the situation in the west bank. to cross-talk the occupation or non occupation of palestinian lands i'm joined by michael merman in tel aviv he is a writer for the jerusalem post in jerusalem we have it tomorrow mark reuss he's the founder and director of palestinian media watch and in san diego we cross to

susan how why she is the author of the international bestseller mornings and janine all right crosstalk rules in effect folks that means you can jump in anytime you want susan can i ask you because you got up early just for this program what is your reaction to this finding by this judge that the there is no occupation of the over the west bank well i mean that's that's that contradicts decades of international law and a multitude of u.n. resolutions and policies by. by by by the international community and the all tenets of international law the most basic of which is that acquisition of territory by conquest and forces inadmissible it's knowledge void. you know it's outrageous it's it's another it's a step towards israel's consolidating of the whole of palestine which has been the

zionist plan all along ok tomorrow in jerusalem what do you think about the report . well first of all there is a lot of factual errors unfortunately what susan just said. what what this report has said is that international law recognizes that this is not an occupation meaning that's land was originally occupied illegally by jordan this was not palestinian under any second of palestinian state so therefore this land was not taken from jordan or taken from the state this was taken from jordan that illegally occupied it and jordan has given up its claim to it israel took it in a defensive war united nations to four to recognize that israel was trying it was not a defensive or a liar and i say let me just finish please sixty seven war was started that you know you say you've made it you just you need a huge error but you ain't nobody jordan in the world are not acting israel and

china you well it was not it that's not true nineteenth the one nine hundred sixty seven is right in the way the israeli sixty seven minority not was started by israel when they attacked egypt but you can't you can't change history that's right that will start there is no you're right let me jump in here ok ok i want to have another person on the panel my call to let me what do you think what do you think of the report in the middle east michael i would interrupt in the middle of where i want to hear all of our gas at first ok and then we can continue to continue this way michael what do you think i mean i didn't even finish first of all and i didn't even finish and i was interrupted michael has managed a chance to speak go ahead michael. first of all i would point out that the report hasn't been adopted by any government or record body and so it's likely to be buried by the prime minister and he knows that it's going to have bad political repercussions for him and he probably will not want to touch it. secondly the biggest problem of the report is that it doesn't address the palestinian people it simply talks about the land the occupation was recognized. as such by the israeli

supreme court in multiple occasions both under the geneva and hague conventions and they've been creative in how they apply it but the concept of an occupation i mean the fact is that there's military rule over the palestinian people in the west bank ok tomorrow what do you think about that. ok let me just finish what i was saying before the israel is in the west bank according to a un resolution two forty two and according to the us law courts which recognize that israel had a right to be there until there would be a final settlement and that's the most important thing israel is following all the agreements united nations agreement and the other that's all that this that this ruling this document is saying i agree completely with that says the document is a technical document dealing with legality it is not dealing with the most intimate relations and what about that now is to me and i know the way to try if i could i

don't know if you would about the people. absolutely the issue of the palestinians there has to be some kind of a solution and israel has been hoping for years for a palestinian population that is willing to live with us together in peace and i would say tragically every opportunity to negotiate every opportunity to work toward some kind of a peaceful settlement has been rejected by the palestinians starting with the intifada that was started by yasser arafat which left thousands decile to you know that i'm going to side settlement israel just wants to work this out in peaceful ways that's right the settlements are accepted in the us little accords is something that must be resolved in the final stand by for not is negotiations i'd really like to jump in there. ok explain susan jump in peter i mean there is this you know this is this is a this is israel's perpetual claim that you know that all they wanted to do was live in peace they want to have peace for neighbors but if you actually look at the

map and if you actually look at the numbers and what's actually happening behind their words palestine and palestinians are quite literally being wiped off the map i mean if you look at a succession of maps and i'm sure you've seen these before you know we have gone from from palestine where you know six percent jewish land ownership to palestinians sort of being squeezed into these can't hons and ghettos that are that exist on less than less than ten percent of our historic homeland and in all of these are these are these are ghettos that are surrounded by walls and fences and checkpoints palestinians live quite i'm a miserable and oppressed life under military occupation and are subject to military protocols and arbitrary detentions etc you know i was so so to say that all israel wants to do is live in peace is just that's completely disingenuous and

it flies in the face of of every reality that's. existing on on on the ground so i wish him our would just be would just be straightforward and honest israel stated aim and what they have always said they wanted is to have that you know the land from the mediterranean to the jordan river you know have that be jewish and if they have to put up with a small non jewish minority well they'll have to do that and they're going to make sure that there's no demographic threat from that minority by whatever measures that they need to take in these measures you know we've already gotten a glimpse of them over the past six decades including expulsions assassinations detentions you know it's i mean just just be honest just yes there are and don't don't say you want to live with us as peaceful neighbors just like a hero during my call i want to go to you i mean if there is no occupation here and the palestinians should be given citizenship that's logical well that's one of the

one state solution of one state solution of all cynically looking at the letter for four. things thinking that you can be taken from the letter report but if there is no occupation and you don't mention the palestinians than what do you what do you do with them if there's not going to be a palestinian state than palestinians will have to be given all the civil and human rights that israelis enjoy. so that's definitely one problem with the lever of course if you're coming from a two state stance it tomorrow looks like a one state solution with this report peter if i may maybe he's trying to get susan just said go ahead he's going to head yeah. susan said that there were six decades of suffering and i just don't tell you something very significant. israel died as i said the west bank in a defensive war jordan as we know attacked israel from jerusalem without any provocation israel had a right to attack in egypt because they blocked them they did a blockade but beyond that in the years from one nine hundred sixty seven to one

thousand nine hundred three when israel was ruling the west bank of israel was administering. west bank what was the relationship between palestinians so first of all there was hardly a checkpoint the two economies melded everything in palestinian society was growing in the one nine hundred seventy s. the fourth group fastest growing economy in the world was in the west bank and gaza israel did let me finish please all the universes eleven universities were open for palestinians by the palestinians by israel i want to say one significant thing polls were taken in one thousand nine hundred sixty one thousand nine but the most important palestinian posters here is palestinians to rate for places in the world in democracy and human rights and in those early years after the beginning of the oslo accords from one thousand nine hundred six to nine hundred ninety nine before all the palestinian hate education came through four years in a row palestinians gave israel the best rating in the world in democracy and human rights better than the united states better than france and far better than the palestinian authority the palestinian people when they were under is really

administration admired you larry they have been a. good neighbor susan jump and exactly exactly i hate to say this is a way to mind a road race imagine that when a black intifada they rated israel better than the palestinian authority except the palestinian authority that actually exists at that time that's. saying in nineteen years these hard life i mean after the housing authority lived under that excuse me if you're if you know it's a palestinian poll sure don't military occupation palestinians live under a brutal military occupation don't think so you say so to home demolitions then they are paid on by not they are zero it's not i'm not saying so this you know this i am palestinian and i you don't get to separate me from them and this is the opinion of every human rights organization that has ever ever observed or covered the situation in that part of the world this is how things are so much a lane of those polled ultimately and why palestinian so there was there are

hundreds of palestinians hundreds of power. a sting in children who languish in israeli jails without charge or trial one on one planet is any palestinian going to say that they you know that israel that they're rating israel number one is that why they launched a resistance and a popular uprising is that why they're marching every friday against the wall is that why human rights workers from all over the world gather to support palestinians is that why nelson mandela said you know we will never be agree i will tell you why there must be in brothers or free the whole world is standing against you in the face of this occupation and this man and it's him are you are trying to say that oh we actually love this occupation that's outrageous what you're saying is completely on usenet i know you're not listening to me go ahead and i mean i know you get it i don't know if joy is hardly an obstruction but i think beginning of the last no period all right i have to jump in oh we're going to go to

a short break and after that show break we'll continue our discussion on the occupation state starkey. if you. want. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for like sleep you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't have time part is a big. please

please please. and. if you want to be. welcome across i'm going to hear a little remind you we're talking about the israeli palestinian conflict.

and. all right michael i want to go back to you in tel aviv where is the so-called peace process now if there is no occupation. the peace process is clinically dead it's exists solely for the purpose of a process at this point. we haven't seen any serious efforts in at least three years to return to a two state solution and i think it's in the interests of both political leadership so that it that it is that way both of them have an interest and sustaining the process. for the israelis the status quo has become comfortable for the palestinians they don't actually have the ability to deliver a two state solution both because of the schism with some us and also because the palestinian authority president abbas lacks democratic legitimacy. is in the something of a four year term. and both of them not that the palestinians are happy with the

status quo but by by maintaining the process they're able to push for. statehood bid and more different steps towards independence susan where is the peace process in your mind it look because i think what michael just said makes a lot of sense i mean we really don't see any evidence of it at all absolutely i mean i agree with michael. it has it's been a process all along it was. it is seems that it was intended all along to just be a process to to buy time as we've seen israel has used that time to more than quadruple the presence of illegal settlers in the territory that was ostensibly to be created as a palestinian state. there's there's no way in my mind that a viable palestinian state in the west bank and gaza can emerge under the current

conditions that israel has created. precisely because of these illegal colonies that are entirely segregated so you know in order to ensure the rights of everyone who is living there to provide full equality under the law regardless of religion creed color which is is hopefully the ideal. i see no other way than to create a single state where where the rights of everyone rights a very wise are respected it tomorrow i think that's really what it gets down to it's a one state solution can israel give the palestinians equal rights well i don't think a one state solution will satisfy i mean isn't that the reality right now is that the reality right now is a one state. if there is no occupation i'll be right there's no occupation there's

one state number of years i'll tell you what i had. from up for many years from for many years from sixty seven to one thousand nine hundred three before the oslo accords there was the fact of one state in fact there were no borders there were no checkpoints and hundreds of thousands of palestinians worked in israel spoke hebrew and it was all israel hoped with the signing of the oslo accords to have a peaceful palestinian side who would then work out a final agreement with us so that we could have two states living side by side in peace and i just want to tell you what has been happening and what's been going on on the palestinian side let me just quote you from some things that have been said by official palestinians recently so for example at an event which was the forty seventh anniversary of the founding earlier this year the most he was introduced with the following words are war with the descendants of the apes and pigs is a war religion and faith after he said this that the war with israel is a religious war then the most it came up and said that it's law meant destiny

essentially to kill all the jews to bring about resurrection we had a children's program just a few months ago a young girl on television said that christians and jews are very to christians and jews are inferior smaller more cowardly and despise them to market forces and even worse is that any worse for a party is really behind a very bad any worse than politics politicians in israel saying there is no such thing as an palestinian yes or yes waiting a palestinian to a copyrights and other things like that i mean what you the equivalence here i don't see the point of no listen to what's the point you know i'll answer your question if i can just say this is in the confessional in iran was when are we going to class is any i mean i write so you enter and go ahead says and see and they are going as we listen here and we'll ask him you after you asked peter you asked him a direct question and instead of answering you he's creating the smoke and mirrors once again to try to try and create and try to portray palestinians as these monsters irrational violent i mean this is the israel this is their tactic it's

such then and this is is this. the propagandists attempt i just knew i was there and. you know. them but you know what i can't sit here i can sit here and point out a whole lot more israeli textbooks television shows quoted by by leaders in the highest office that completely demonize and dehumanize us that they relate to us in the most horrible animalistic terms but that was not the question had he asked you a direct question and why don't you just answer that that's not in the other thing is your claim your claim your claim that you know since the oslo accords israel has just been trying to help establish you know a palestinian state what tell me then why did israel actually confiscate nearly all of the areas sea and proceed to build settlements on confiscated palestinian property most of it from private palestinian owners and in

order to build jewish only colonies with segregated roads that are palestinians are not even allowed to drive on and checkpoints the route if it was indeed the intention of israel to to to comply with the oslo accords why did they do that why did they go about making facts on the ground that make them if they didn't change things in stevenson law things improved your making a palestinian and i to go to michael michael was also really good there are many mean let's go to michael in tel aviv was also just really a mandate to create settlements not a peace process. i think the intention of also was to let's not forget that all slow was it was a temporary process it was a process itself. the division of areas a b. and c. was a temporary situation until the future borders could be negotiated. what it resulted in is as not benefit the palestinians definitely. with the exception of the second

intifada that came following the also accords it has created a relatively comfortable status quo for israel where settlement growth has continued that is true. making it more difficult to move beyond the process that was only supposed to last for a few years and it's now eighteen years old ok to my do you have any sympathy for the palestinian people at all. even your tone and your question is unfortunately you know like i said the issue of the people or the bell where there's problems and not wait until you're in france which people are important yes it is and why would you assume that i don't because i'm israeli i don't i absolutely have sympathy and i have palestinian friends and there are even palestinian journalists who i speak to regularly about the terrible things we're witnessing a palestinian media watch and the hope to bring about peace with the palestinians you can be a peaceable stand there be a p i have tremendous sympathy and all i want i would love. let me tell you something when i quoted to you before is the reason why there's no peace the

palestinian use and the past the need adults are being bombarded with such poison and such hatred there never would have been and it defied had there not been poisoning from one thousand nine hundred four through the year two thousand that we were observing and that we were screaming about and we were warning about it because as i said polls showed at the beginning of the oslo accords that palestinians admired israelis and democracy human rights that was a population we could have slipped into a peace treaty with if not for all the poison coming from the palestinian leadership who came from tunisia as you know this was not the local population we signed oslo with who very much wanted to live in israel in peace this was a foreign population yasser arafat they poison the people they started into further they created violence they essentially the worst i have appeared to use in jumpin please do. is classes i question for mr it some are. you know i am my parents i am palestinian my parents were born there my grandparents are

buried there my great grandparents are buried there you can go back for centuries and my direct line i'm not talking about my religious attachments or anything else my direct personal history i would like you to tell me why you a new york born white jewish man with no apparent. personal family ties beginning with your parents and going for why do you feel you have more rights than i do to live in that land or my parents who can't even step foot there. just answer that question for me ok i will answer that went ok when the zionist movement started. people disagree about the population of the land at the time but even at the highest population that you're going to get to your and your starting point for gay marriage i'm glad i'm not honey i'm answering your question you're a flock and there's again i'm talking about me and i'm giving you the answer and

you know you're not you're never of the right there is no one answer that you have let me finish answering i had yes and there is not one answer that you let me finish tonight please i just finished when the zionist movement started this land had a few hundred thousand people the majority were arabs but today this land has over ten million people those hundred thousand people did not have the land there was mostly owned by foreigners people who lived in syria people of the lebanon land was desolate when the zionist movement started you'll tell me it wasn't i'm telling you now there are ten million people now there are two hundred thousand people then when the zionist movement started jews started moving there were turning to our land a great hunger and i was right no one was this no one was let me finish no one was displaced. no one was interesting article rami was an american from the nineteen eighties come on now really no no no i don't know what excuse me lands out of people he said was i don't want to live here we're only or friends or two thousand and twelve with a straight face. because when you have one hundred fifty thousand people in

a land where there are ten million today the land was empty just look at the numbers. the big jar the last. hour the way they're going to name a great you know irish there were at least eight hundred thousand there were at least eight hundred thousand refugees that were expelled where how did you how did you squeal how did how our house eight hundred people can squeeze out or twenty three hundred thousand that you know you're referring to this is our rate and you know why is really that it is you know there was a force for the military a year say is this is just outrageous that it's just outrageous and it is this guy gourmet they don't even you're talking about it even britney mandate that i have right folks we didn't resolve anything as usual on this topic many thanks to my guest today in jerusalem tel aviv and in san diego and thanks to our viewers for watching us here i can see you next time and remember prostate.

scars. and lines.