"The Good ole Days Before the Peace Treaty"

So tonight we had a wonderful forum speaker, he is a journalist that works for Jerusalem Post, he is the Palestinian  CNBC correspondent, and used to be a writer for the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization). He is living in Israel but considers himself as a Palestinian Israeli, ironic right? But tonight's lecture was probably the most unbiased information that I have received thus far and so I am going to relay the things that he spoke about in a bullet point form:

• His main topic was about how the life and conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians have gotten worse and downhill since the Oslo Peace Treaty. He was saying that he wished life went back to before the peace treaty because life was less complicated and people were more tolerant of each other. Many Palestinians got frustrated with Yasser Arafat after the agreement because there was tons of money pushed at him but he was corrupt and spent all of the money and gave none of it to the people, this is why majority of the Palestinians went straight to Hamas and supported him. He said that he was going to have change and so people flocked to him. After the agreement the Jews and Palestinians felt more restricted than ever, they woke up one morning and then there were borders set-up. Many of them lost their job because they could not go into certain areas. This just created tension between two sides that wasn't there before
• The US wanted them to have a free election in the area and they pushed for Palestinians to have their own leader. The US never thought that Hamas would ever win in the election but everyone over here knew that Hamas would win. 
• The Fatah and Hamas agreement that was made a few weeks meant nothing, it was to show Israel that they are ready for agreement but they still hate each other. To him they hate each other more than they hate Israel. 
• More Jews and Arabs have died since the Peace treaty began than before
• Palestinians are demanding that they go back to the '67 borders but they know that it is impossible to go back to that agreement. It would mean that thousands of Jews and Arabs would lose their houses and that will not create peace but it will actually create more tension and hate.
• He believes that the only solution is a two-state solution. Both the Arabs and Jews do not want to live together both know this. It is like a divorced couple living together, they need to split apart.
• The Palestinian side is divided between Fatah and Hamas and until they can agree on what they want on then they cannot go to the Israelis and make an agreement

So these are not my opinions but his. I hope that this makes sense and that I am just babbling. He is a journalist and told us that majority of the news that we receive in the US is biased and not accurate. They send reporters that they drop in and they are not really knowing what is happening. So be careful. Well I love you all and I hope that you were able to find this site.