Israel Matzav

Three interesting tidbits

Here are three interesting tidbits you may not have known from this article in the Washington Post.

In a speech Wednesday to Palestinian peace activists, [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton acknowledged that "I cannot stand here tonight and tell you there is some magic formula that I have discovered that will break through the current impasse."

While the administration has set a goal of achieving an agreement less than 11 months from now, Clinton at one point suggested a much longer time frame: "The future holds the possibility of progress, if not in our lifetimes, then certainly in our children's."

Yes, even Secretary of State Clinton now acknowledges that it just might not be possible to reach a deal within a year.

To buy 60 days more for a settlement freeze from Israel, the administration floated a long list of security incentives. When Netanyahu didn't bite, Abbas was wooed with something he had long demanded - a U.S. commitment to begin the negotiations using the map of Israel before the 1967 Six-Day War. But that effort did not move the Palestinians.

So the rumor that the US tried to woo the 'Palestinians' with incentives is also true. But the 'Palestinians' wouldn't budge either.

Asked whether he was still a member of the Palestinian negotiating team, Muhammad Shatayeh said Friday by telephone: "That's right. But there are no negotiations.''

Apart from a phone call Wednesday from Mitchell to Abbas, nothing is happening, he said.

"These people, Uzi Arad and others, their priority is actually not the Palestinian issue,'' Shatayeh said of Netanyahu's national security adviser, who has said publicly in recent months that it was a mistake to try to negotiate a peace deal with the Palestinians. "Of course it is Iran.''

Yes, even the 'Palestinians' understand that the number one concern is and has to be Iran. It seems that only Obama can't understand that and keeps trying to make the 'Palestinians' a bigger issue than Iran.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:35 PM