Israel Matzav

Arab League to back Abu Mzaen decision to leave talks?

Contrary to the optimism that's been reported all week long, the Jerusalem Post reports on Friday's front page that the Arab League meeting in Libya that opens on Friday is likely to back a decision by 'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen to bolt the 'direct talks' with Israel. Now comes the blame game.

Although Ambassador to the US Michael Oren on Thursday was the first Israeli or American official to acknowledge that Washington had offered Jerusalem inducements to extend the freeze, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – in public statements he made later in the day – sounded more like someone trying to shift the blame for failure onto the other side, rather than someone on the verge of announcing a breakthrough.

“We honored the government decision and took upon ourselves a commitment to the international community and the US to start the peace talks,” Netanyahu said of the 10- month moratorium that ended nearly two weeks ago.

“The Palestinians waited over nine months and, immediately at the onset of the talks, set a precondition even though they had promised that there would be no preconditions.”

The prime minister said that just as his government honored its commitment regarding the settlement moratorium, “we very much hope that the Palestinians will stay in the peace talks.”

But, said Netanyahu during a visit to Lod, “Today, the questions need to be directed to the Palestinians: Why are you abandoning the talks? Don’t turn your backs on peace; stay in the talks. This is what needs to be asked today, and not of the Israeli government.”

Oren, in a video interview on The Washington Post’s website, said Netanyahu feared that since he said the moratorium would only last for 10 months, if it was extended his credibility would be “grievously damaged.”

If at the beginning of the negotiating process Netanyahu’s credibility was dented, then no one would believe him at the end of the process when he would have to give his word to the country that “the two-state solution would be to their benefit,” Oren said.

The US administration, Oren acknowledged, “came to Israel with a number of suggestions, incentives if you would, that would enable the government to maybe pass a limited extension of two or three months.”

Oren said the Obama administration was also continuing to talk with the Palestinians and the Arab League.

Once again, a 'Palestinian' unwillingness to make any compromises is going to kill whatever small chance there was for 'peace' (I don't believe there ever was one but that's almost beside the point). The 'Palestinians' never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

One other thing that came up on Thursday that's important to note:

The Prime Minister’s Office refused to relate to media reports that as a condition for extending the moratorium by two or three months, Netanyahu was asking US President Barack Obama to sign off on a letter president George W. Bush gave prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, a year before the withdrawal from Gaza.

In that letter, seen as instrumental in enabling Sharon to get his disengagement plan through the cabinet, Bush indicated that the US would not back the Palestinian claim for a right of refugee return to within the pre-1967 borders; would not call for a full return to those 1967 borders, something Israel took to mean that Washington would accept Israel’s holding on to the major settlement blocs; and that the US would back Jerusalem when international pressure came to bear on Israel regarding its nuclear program.

The Obama administration has never reaffirmed that letter, a sore point to some inside the government who feel Sharon withdrew from Gaza on the basis of that document.

The fact that Israel is even considering paying again for an American commitment for which it has already paid with 10,000 homeless Jewish Israelis' ruined lives is despicable. The lying, conniving Obama administration, which announced that it was violating this ironclad American commitment on the day it took office, has not right to make any demands of Israel and NO credibility in this country - with good reason.

But of course, the 'Palestinians' expect business as usual.

“We believe that in the end the Americans will put heavy pressure on the Israeli government to extend the freeze,” the [senior PA] official said, adding that the PA and the Arab League were not seeking to destroy the peace process.

These talks are failing because the 'Palestinians' don't want peace and the Israelis cannot trust Obama. It's a recipe for disaster and shows why it was a mistake to ever try to start these talks under these circumstances. We can only hope and pray that what has been a decent status quo for the last few years does not deteriorate because of Obama's 'fierce moral urgency' to create a 'Palestinian state.'

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:05 AM