but first let's see if russians believe in a lasting peace between the israelis and the palestinians mission failed this remains polus to produce results in the middle east peace process however this has not stopped washington's to kickstart indirect told between the israelis and palestinians but the x. for a more and more skeptical about success some say it is time for other parties to step in the public opinion and also russians if there could be a last in peace between israelis and palestinians thirty four percent said the peace is quite possible and thirty two percent believe it's not with many adult in washington's ability to be a fair broker the americans still say they assume this is about pushing forward a peace agreement and laying their politicians for a future palestinian state back to peter ok before we went to the break amare i think you wanted to jump in there but we're talking about is the conditions for negotiations because you said earlier in the program it's all about negations go ahead. yes another thing about the negations is that not only is their israeli governm

haim saban's background is israeli, hani's is palestinian. both have heard the show with the former prime ministers of israel and england and the current prime minister of the palestinian authority. from what you've heard, haim saban, they want peace, you want peace, the other side wants peace. is it going to happen? >> it has to happen. there is no two ways around that issue. if you look at the little sliver of land between the mediterranean and the jordan river, you will find a lot of jewish archaeology. with that said, there are 2 1/2 million people of palestinian descent that live on that land. therefore, the only way going forward is two states for two people. there is no other opportunity, solution of any kind neither for the palestinians nor for the israelis. so -- i was just going to say that when something has to happen, eventually it happens. >> larry: since everybody wants it, hani masri, why didn't it happen yesterday? >> that's a good question, larry. we have been into this process for 15 years. and nothing has happened so far. a

now, if you read the book, "israeli lobby," you were treated to this notion that the israeli lobby is all powerful, and this is a constant theme that you can read in state department documents going back years that somehow these jews are exerting too much influence on u.s.-middle east policy. i think you can destroy the entire argument with just two words. barak obama. look, this is a nonpartisan thing. i can use another two words. george bush. h. w. bush. each of the aces you can see by no means were the president's tallying or listening or being controlled by the pro-israel lobby, and let me talk specifically about the case of barak obama and where we are today in the peace process to show you a kind of case study of the arab lobby's influence. now, the israeli lobby's basic philosophy is that the government of israel as the democratically elected representatives of the people should decide the fate of israel and should engage in direct negotiations with the arabs, palestinians, the other arab states to negotiate a now two-state solution is the preferred result. the arab lobby has a

i think it is a very basic human aspect of his address in the israelis -- his addressing the israelis not from cairo. >> you can actually say anything to israelis if you first make it clear you know what neighborhood they are living in. and you can actually say anything to arabs and if you first make it clear you really want him to succeed. >> we have to take into account that we were spoiled for 16 years by two american presidents who knew how to have the israelis. [unintelligible] between bush and clinton. the israelis love to be loved. in many cases we did not deserve it. about obama, the cairo speech was a careful mistake. i interviewed him after the speech. i was the only one who did not belong to the steering the -- the syrian guyanyway, there wase between the speech and the interview. david axelrod and rahm emanuel went in the and i told him -- in between the hardship palestinians suffered and the holocaust made by

at the advent of the israeli state and for some estimates now it's around two percent to take your numbers it's still going down dramatically what is the single most important reason why krista christian population has diminished so much in palestine. you would say. political and income think i'm sure it would like to be the shows found themselves in go ahead alex. yes the economic and the political situation that the palestinian christians found themselves in is the main reason why they left the holy land and why they are leaving the. people leave the country and go to another country because they are not comfortable either politically or religiously but economically in the country that they leave and so they looking for a better life somewhere else ok alex if i can to stay with you you were born in jerusalem right yes i was born in jerusalem in one nine hundred forty six and the christian community in the holy land at that time was about one fifth of the population today it is less than two percent maybe one point two percent so the there has been a drastic decline in the christian popul

government and therefore sometimes they fall prey i think on the israeli side it's more in the order of societal harassment nothing really government oriented on the palestinian side some of the harassment is going over into persecution and with no real recourse to governmental means to try to hold people particularly radical muslims accountable for some of the acts there are people arrested whenever they try to torture torture church in israel the same does not happen in the palestinian authority and peter i think to understand this whole issue of this is going on in christian population here in the holy land over the last sixty years you have to look at the entire middle east region where in every single country the christian population is dropping and much in the same ratio as it is here in the holy land and israel actually stands out as dafna pointed out as the only country where the christian population has grown in real terms and therefore you when you try and adin a five the reason christians are leaving the entire holy land i think the primary culprit is radical islam ok alek

in fact, the israeli and palestinian negotiators will be going to washington in the coming week. hillary clinton will be making a speech about peace on friday. american officials also said that they will be discussing how to move forward but but the israelis and palestinians, but it is a little bit unclear what that really means. >> that for us from washington. a week after ireland applied for help from the imf, its finance minister has made plans to take 6 billion euros. >> the scale of this adjustment is demanding, but it demonstrates the seriousness of our intent. a gap between government receipts and spending is on as 19 billion euros this year. that gap must be closed. >> the european union finance ministers have decided not to provide extra money for the bailout fund for european countries in financial trouble. the international monetary fund has concern at that spain, portugal, and possibly other countries will join ireland and greece and any help. almost all tamil civilians have now returned to their home area. 300,000 tamil civilians were living in a camp a year-and-a- h

israelis are out. and so, so, you know, in a way, you know, you know, i told you this story. i was in the covering the war in bosnia, and everybody said there are no jewish providences. and believe me, the only people who define themselves as israelians are the children of the im-- immigrant workers who want to join the army. you know this about third of the immigrants from the soviet union are not jews according to this, but they hate it enough to become jewish, so they are jews in this respect. they don't accept it, but the general population is very, very integral to the family land. >> is lieberman someone to be afraid of or another hard right politician who once he's prime minister will be domesticated and call into the pattern? >> this is a tough question, really. what is different that he has no movement, but he has, but he has a group which votes, i believe, by about 80 or 85% for these parties which i don't think is quite israeli politics, not the most ethnic parties that die after two terms,

israel television court has said instead israeli activists to three months in prison for a nonviolent anti-war protest jonathan pollard took part in a bike ride demonstration against the blockade of gaza three years ago human rights activists are calling the sentence unusually harsh for more on this we're joined live in tel aviv like those of data from the popular struggle coordination committee thanks for being with us so mr pollack was one of thirty people who took part in this demonstration but he was the only one to arrested and sentenced why him and what did he do to deserve his sentence. thanks for having me and what we see with the case of jonathan pollard is a clear attempt to silence dissent on the israeli left and a broader attack on nonviolence in israel against israel's military campaigns. even israeli soldiers accused of abusing palestinians don't usually get a prison term or a very long one why do you think authorities are being so harsh on a peace activist in this case. israel's engaged in a very serious military and diplomatic repression of any aspect of nonviolence we

and obviously the israelis would have to endure that.hamas, not so sure about it i'm not sure exactly how moscow do besides shoot more of their missiles, there are far less lethal than what hezbollah has. again, i seriously am doubtful that you will see much of a reaction throughout the rest of the middle east. if one goes back historically, people in the west have been fearing the reprisals of various western aggressive actions in the middle east since before world war i. the germans come if you recall, worked very diligently to manufacture a jihad against the empire. it failed abysmally. i do not think that the notion of islamists, islamic terror of way either of israel or the united states is very likely. i think it would peter out, whatever there is would peter out quite likely. the primary iranian response to an attack on their nuclear facilities, at least so far as being a state is concerned, would be terrorism and. i think it's a foregone conclusion that the iranians would try to strike back using terrorism, and we have to be prep

two years israeli air. survivors say they're still living in a state of siege. in broadcasting live from our studios in central moscow this is our t.v. certainly glad to have you with us russia lashed out at the west for criticism over the trial of former oil tycoon. moscow said the international community should stay out of what is essentially a domestic matter. is awaiting sentencing after being found guilty of embezzling billions of dollars you got a piece could off has been following the events. well washington has said that such a verdict will horn russia's image when it comes to human rights and germany has said that this will be a step back for russia in terms of modernization well according to the russian foreign ministry this is an attempt to apply pressure on the court and moscow is now calling on the united states and on the european union not to intervene this issue rests with the competence of the traditional system of the russian federation . any of them exert pressure upon the royal are unacceptable. in his recent interview with the heads of the l

. >> as talks falter, the palestinian prime minister salam fayyad and israeli opposition leader tzipi livni in a rare joint television interview only on "this week." can they map out a path to peace? >>> plus, in the line of ire. royals put up in riots over drastic spending cut. >> charles, how are you doing tonight? >> i'll talk exclusively to former british prime minister gordon brown. is today's uk tomorrow's usa? and analysis of all the week's politics on our roundtable with george will, nobel prize-winning economist paul krugman, political strategist matthew dowd and abc's cokie roberts. plus "the sunday funnies." >> the worst drivers in the country in washington, d.c. well, yeah, if you're republicans, you can only turn right. democrats can only turn left and obama weaving all over the place. >>> hello again. >>> hello again. the hat is expected to vote again on the senate is expected to vote again on the president's $860 billion tax cut plan on monday. in the house, democrats say not so fast. they want to make significant changes to the bill. the president is pressuring those i

israeli prime minister netanyahu issued instructions to all israeli diplomatic missions to exert pressure on all countries that are planning to recognize the palestinian state do you think that this will further aggravate the situation the nation with the. you know every state has a sovereign right to make its own decisions of a country to say as to recognize a palestinian state it's a reality that should be reckoned with. as far as i know president medvedev is planning to visit israel and the palestinian territories in the near future many think it's going to be a historic visit to the palestinian lands will the russian president make any proposals to the middle east region. but if they should visit definitely he will dimitri medvedev is forthcoming visit to palestine israel and jordan is a major political event. it will have great importance both for the region and for producing a positive impact on the current extremely complex situation in the middle east and certainly it will be important for our relations with palestine israel and jordan with one of the visits main goals is undoubte

well as left offer to the israeli nation.s center organizing principle for decades. the logic of the peace process holds all israel needs to so is final anything out the rye way to give up its pat tro mony, its claim to the united jerusalem, even to sovereignty over the temple now and also carve out of its tiny ways between the jordan and mediterranean another arab state f it puts a bow on this, presumably the arab world will be waiting there to receive israel in peace. but this logic has run aground against the reality of arab rejectionism time and time again. precisely the point, sa those who support and feel benjamin netanyahu was a strong leader for the state of israel. according to them, netanyahu's really going through the motions . once again israel is flying a nation without red lines in order to appease the obama administration and international community. whether this is strong leadership or a vision for israel, i are leave as an open question. buas to whether it is the international community that has taken israel

security council to approve a resolution condemning israeli settlements in the west bank. has now from a human rights group that's concerned the world body struggling to play fair with israel. with me i have the executive director of human watch a human rights group based in switzerland mr noah thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. your group basically the united nations but why does the u.n. even need monitoring he would watch as a non-governmental organization whose mandate is to monitor the united nations according to the principles of its charter essentially to hold the un accountable and to measure it by the artistic of its own charter many israelis complain that israel does not get a fair deal or fair hearing by the united nations would you agree it's one of our issues that's important to us is fighting anti-semitism and also the discriminatory treatment of israel the un's obsession with israel doesn't only harm israel doesn't only harm the peace process but it harms the un as a whole it prevents the u.n. from being effective for human rights victims who ne

a teller of court has sentenced an israeli activist to three months in prison for a nonviolent antiwar protest jonathan pollard took part in a bicycle ride demonstration against the blockade of gaza three years ago human rights activists are calling the sentence on usually harsh choice of data from the popular struggle coordination committee who says that the case highlights the poor state of democracy in israel. israel's engaged in a very serious military and diplomatic repression of any aspect of nonviolence mr pollock's sentencing is the latest attack on this in which israel is targeting its own citizens and i think it's quite a commentary on israeli society that the only israeli that has been jailed in relation to the gaza war is one that decided to nonviolently ride his bike through the streets of tel aviv the treatment of palestinians is significantly worse mr pollack addressed this in his sentencing argument in which he said that because he's an israeli jew he's going to jail only for three months while nonviolent palestinian leaders go to jail for years and there are sometimes

and its its mission was respected by israelis as it was by arabs but in the past several decades.

israelis are out. they talk jewish, and so, so, you know, in a way, you know, you know, i told you this story. i was in the covering the war in bosnia, and everybody said there are no jewish providences. and believe me, the only people who define themselves as israelians are the children of the im-- immigrant workers who want to join the army. you know this about third of the immigrants from the soviet union are not jews according to this, but they hate it enough to become jewish, so they are jews in this respect. they don't accept it, but the general population is very, very integral to the family land. >> is lieberman someone to be afraid of or another hard right politician who once he's prime minister will be domesticated and call into the pattern? >> this is a tough question, really. what is different that he has no movement, but he has, but he has a group which votes, i believe, by about 80 or 85% for these parties which i don't think is quite israeli politics, not the most ethnic parties that die

society that the only israeli that has been jailed in relation to the gaza war is one that decided to nonviolently ride his bike through the streets of tel aviv the treatment of palestinians is significantly worse mr pollack addressed this in his sentencing argument in which he said that because he's an israeli jew he's going to jail for three months while nonviolent palestinian leaders go to jail for years and there are sometimes placed in administrative detention without being charged with a single crime and so we see that the quality of israeli democracy now for its own citizens it is any serious decline and one might say in a crisis and this is just a logical extension to the type of violence and repression that we see against nonviolent activists in the palestinian territories. that was joseph dana from the popular popular struggle coordination committee well it's about seventeen minutes past the hour now here in moscow you are with r.t. let's do some other world news in break right now and a suspected u.s. missile strike has hit pakistan's northwestern tribal area near the afgha

israelis insist their economic siege on gaza is easing i think continent the border and international condemnation is heating up and asian aid convoy but politicians and activists from eighteen countries is on its way to gaza on border one hundred eighty people food and medical supplies and a determined call to reach gaza on the second anniversary of the last israel gaza wall the convoy dubbed asia to gaza sunday deputy caravan sits sail from new delhi at the beginning of december it's trying to do what in a fit to fail to do it may break the israeli blockade on the coastal strip that attempt left nine activists did since then israel insists things have gotten better there is a humanitarian analysis that we are. on a daily basis which allows us to see a broad picture about the humanitarian conditions and the situation in the. moment but gazans complain life is still unbearable. and israel has limited the number of trucks clothes and shoes coming into gaza and this causes problems with coordination in gaza last month twenty two international organizations issued a report claiming the e

with me i have dr win in bergman a senior israeli military and intelligence analyst and author of the book the secret war with iran dr thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. spoke up so to cut to the chase is israel planning an attack on iran well i put it i would put it this way israel wouldn't like to attack israeli leaders understand the possible horrendous results of such an attack the possible intervention of hamas possibly syria condemned nation from europe the ballistic. anger from from the united states and the outcomes therefore if israel would be able to stop the renewed nuclear initiative using it diplomatic pressure economic sanctions or supporting it. imposed by do international community. operational intelligence means israel would prefer to take this path and the latest wiki leaks reports suggest that some arab leaders are pushing pressure on the united states to attack iran's nuclear reactor is there in. i think you mean this and do you think america could follow the wiki leaks documents on the issue of air pressure on the united states to take harsher steps t

intelligence community the israeli security circles have not been dealt for many many years in. i would say the the the right approach when it comes to coverage of these secret men and secret issues they think the people in israel were terrified with all good reason not to deal with it in i think that we're talking about new times when journalists can investigate these issues come with conclusions come would authority and i'm not claiming that they know everything but i'm trying everything that they say while knowing always have to suspect the sources these are this is the world of shadows in the same spies who are using these clever techniques visibly the iranian nuclear scientists point might use the same this information against me you know currently writing a book entitled most side and the art of assassination is they going to be anything new about the mossad the israeli secret service in this book that has not already been written before we'll have a lot of the details. of numerous assimilation parishioners that took place from the establishment side nine hundred forty nin

is in touch with what's going on here on the ground between israelis and palestinians which would you have really are two separate things and it's something that i've been able to see at the human rights council you have the real situation on the ground where you have israelis and palestinians that need help and they could have help of international interlocutors a bit and i did states the european union or other countries or the or the un which could come in and help them and try to bring them together bridge their differences you have a real situation with real problems what happens at the u.n. too often is something on a on a level that is almost mythological that is entirely divorced from reality and i saw that once a couple of years ago it was in the june two thousand and seven when hamas was waging a bloody coup against the against the palestinian authority and during that time. it was very nasty hamas was throwing people off of rooftops they were shooting people in hospital beds and all this was happening israel of course had already withdrawn in the unilateral withdrawal from

know yet how it plans to get the israelis -- i'm sorry, not the israelis, the palestinians to any future talkings. they've been pretty firm on seeing the settlement freeze before resuming any sort of negotiations. >> well, we had dan rubinstein in jerusalem who had two meetings yet with president abbas. we will continue our discussions with the palestinians. as we said, george mitchell will be in the region next week. >> as a result of the two meetings, did you get any sense that the palestinians are willing to move forward without the settlement freeze? >> again, you know, we are explaining, you know, where we are and explaining -- and also seeking palestinian views on the best path forward. >> i mean -- take us to the next step. are the palestinians willing to move forward? based on your conversation. >> well, we are having discussions with both sides. and we'll gist -- we'll just leave it there. >> i understand you clearly. you are saying the package was contingent on the israelis agreeing to a settlement freeze. that did not happen. so the package is no longer there. >> we are at thi

by the israeli intelligence services. the operations that detailed include the killing of a hamas leader in dubai earlier this year. said that western papers have been hesitant to publish sensitive materials relating to israel. our interview. with dr ronen bergman an israeli military intelligence analyst about recent wiki leaks disclosures have revealed. with me i have dr been in birdman a senior israeli military and intelligence analyst and author of the book the secret war with iran dr thank you very much for joining us here on r.t. most welcome so to cut to the chase is israel planning an attack on iran well i put it i would put it this way israel wouldn't like to attack israeli leaders understand the possible horrendous results of such a coup the possible intervention of. possibly syria condemned nation from europe the ballistic. from from the united states in the outcomes therefore israel would be able to stop the aremu nuclear initiative using diplomatic pressure economic sanctions or supporting it. imposed by the i