'Viable peace partner' threatens to freeze 'negotiations'
Arab newspapers are reporting on Monday that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Several Arabic newspapers reported Monday morning that Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas is ready to announce a freeze in negotiations with Israel following his perception that American President George W. Bush is not prepared to pressure Jerusalem for further concessions. The London-based Arabic newspaper Al Quds stated that aides to Abbas also informed him that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has reached an agreement with coalition partner Shas for new building in Jerusalem and several Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria.In an oval office interview last Monday, President Bush asserted that Abu Mazen is a 'viable peace partner.'
Abbas is also preparing to announce to his cabinet in Ramallah the United States is to blame for not being serious in its intentions to achieve a final agreement for a new Arab state within Israel's current borders.
What's going on here is that Abu Mazen is trying to save his neck. He sees himself confronted by a Prime Minister who doesn't have the political strength to get a deal through and a President who is not willing to hand him the entire territory between the Jordan and the Mediterranean on a silver platter. He realizes that Hamas is going to claim that they were right all along - that there's no reason to negotiate with Israel or the United States. So he's decided to postpone the process until after the US elections (and likely elections in Israel as well) in the hope that he will have parties that are more favorable to him with whom he can work (read, Barack Hussein Obama and either Livni or Ehud Barak with a more stable coalition).
Abu Mazen is fooling himself on the Israeli side. Because of Olmert's weakness, he is far more likely than either of the other two to give Abu Mazen what he wants. Barak is wary because of his own experience at Camp David in 2000. And Livni - despite her popularity - is probably not ready to become Prime Minister. Both Barak and Livni tried to convince Olmert not to go to Annapolis. They both realize that this kind of deal cannot happen overnight the way Abu Mazen wants it to happen.
And besides, if there is an election in Israel, Netanyahu is most likely to win.
The JPost is now reporting the same story but says that Abu Mazen will blame Israel too. That's par for the course. They also have a few more details.
Citing PA sources, the article said that prior to his departure from Sharm e-Sheikh Abbas was informed that the United States intended to backtrack on efforts to achieve progress in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians. According to the paper, the report was given to Abbas from a European source, who claimed that the Americans were not interested in exerting pressure or confronting Israel, and that the US was "allowing Israel full freedom to take a stance which would serve its policies, its security, and its interests alone."Abu Mazen and his 'Palestinian people' need to look in a mirror. They cannot cut a deal because they're not willing to give up on anything to reach a compromise. Not borders, not Jerusalem, and not 'refugees.' You don't make agreements on that basis - you impose terms. Only winners can impose terms. The 'Palestinians' and the Arab countries who went to war with Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973 are losers. No one is ever going to give them what they want because they are not willing to accept anything less than everything. During their 'naqba' commemorations last week, the 'Palestinians' chanted 'Palestine is all ours' just like in 1948. You can't expect the world to accept your preferred version of reality when people can plainly see otherwise, and you can't fool all of the people all of the time. The 'Palestinians' had the opportunity to accept several more than reasonable offers and rejected each and every one of them. They should now be left to wallow in their own rejectionist sewage.
Another diplomatic source told the paper that the PA president received reports that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Shas chairman Eli Yishai had come to an understanding in which the former has promised the latter that plans to build thousands of apartment units around Jerusalem and in the West Bank would be approved - this in an attempt to reinforce the premier's foundering coalition.
Given these reports, the source told the paper that Abbas planned to give a speech in Ramallah, during which he would announce that negotiations had failed and blame Israel for the failure. The source added that the PA president would also blame the US for its lack of commitment to the peace process.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:39 AM
4 Comments:
But, according to Debka, the 2 Ehuds and Tweety already caved: http://debka.com/headline.php?hid=5279. Olmert just wanted to break it to us gently. The US probably didn't want their precious "Abu Mazen, Man of Peace" to resign. (a tear drop)
So much for political expediency over Israeli civilian lives. This criminal negligence by our "government" has got to stop.
Ashan,
They caved on Gaza, because they're afraid to fight Hamas and because they have been subjected to ridiculous pressure by the leftist Shalit family, which is willing to see hundreds of Israelis die as long as their son is free. The media treats the Shalits with kid gloves for obvious reasons, but that's the truth.
Also, DEBKA is not 100% reliable - you have to be really careful about using them.
P.S. I updated the post considerably while you were commenting. You may want to check back.
Agreed. The other point that people overlook is that Israel did not come into being because any body handed any thing to the Jewish people on a platter. The pre-state Yishuv had to work very hard to build a Jewish economy, Jewish financial, communal, self-defense and political institutions. This didn't happen overnight It took decades of work before the Yishuv leadership was ready to transform into national institutions at independence. The Palestinians have an entitlement attitude about statehood and independence. They expect others to do for them what they are unwilling to for themselves. Unless they shake off that kind of attitude, a Palestinian state will never come into existence.
Time to give the Palios more disengagement
However ANY rocket, mortar or stabbings should be responded to with overwhelming violence....
Cut off all aid, electricity & water to the gaza strip, make hamasistan rely of egypt or starve...
any palestinian from the west bank or even israeli arabs that are arrested and convicted of terror should be expelled and sent to gaza and with israeli arabs their citizenship stripped.
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