PLO tells Abu Bluff to walk out
The PLO called on 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President The PLO Executive Committee decided on Saturday to persuade Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas not to continue with direct negotiations because of Israel's refusal to continue the building freeze in West Bank settlements.Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the announcement does not close the book on the talks, and both he and Defense Minister Barak called on the 'Palestinians' to continue talking anyway.
Nabil Abu Rudaineh, a Palestinian presidential spokesperson, said that the talks will not continue as long as Israel continues to build on land that is expected to one day become a Palestinian state.
The comments came after Abbas met with dozens of senior Palestinians in Ramallah and sought their backing for his refusal to keep negotiating with Israel without a slowdown in West Bank settlement construction.
Abbas briefed the group about US envoy George Mitchell's latest unsuccessful attempts to narrow the gaps.
"President Abbas' position is clear: no negotiations under the shadow of settlement construction," Abu Rudaineh said before the meeting. However, he said contacts with the US would continue.
An analysis I heard on Israel Radio by Hanan Crystal claims that both sides are trying to drag this out as long as possible so as not to embarrass President Obama before the US elections. Crystal claims that the only way Netanyahu can move ahead (if he wants to) is to fire members of his cabinet - a tactic Prime Minister Sharon employed when there was opposition to the Gaza expulsion in 2004-05.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni - probably the last person in this country with a right to lecture others about putting the country's interests ahead of her own in light of her behavior after the 2009 elections - has urged Netanyahu to make more concessions to the 'Palestinians' even if it brings down his government.
Opposition leader Tzipi Livni said in the statement that "Netanyahu knows the possibility of making decisions that will ensure continued negotiations is in his hands and that Kadima will support any decision that facilitates the talks and strengthens Israel's security interests."Crystal predicts that if the talks fall apart, the Labor party will either withdraw from the government next month or split in two.
Livni added that a "blow up" of the talks would have grave consequences for Israel and that Kadima would fight the implementation of decisions that could potentially derail negotiations.
"Netanyahu must choose [to act in] the real long-term interest of Israel rather than in his own personal political interest," Livni stated.
Meanwhile, it ain't over 'til it's over, and that won't happen at least until the Arab league meeting scheduled for the end of this coming week. Not everyone there is going to support Abu Bluff's position.
In remarks published Friday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit issued surprising criticism of the Palestinian position of making talks contingent on the settlement building restrictions, saying the sides should concentrate on drawing the borders of a Palestinian state.Hmmm.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:12 AM
1 Comments:
The point is the Palestinians are not interested in peace.
The two dumbest people in Israel, Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni, appear not to grasp this basic truism.
Now the Palestinians may not walk out over a freeze but they will walk out over some other issue and no amount of concessions Israel could offer them would lead them to compromise and make peace with Israel.
After everything Israel has learned over the past 17 years of the so called peace process, you would think every one in Israel would get it by now. Quite a few people haven't let it sunk into them yet.
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