There's just one little condition...
I'm sure a lot of you are wondering how 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Speaking in nearby Jerusalem earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu said he wanted to use his enlarged coalition to "advance a responsible peace process".I would say that the chances of Netanyahu agreeing de jure (he's already done so de facto during the ten months that construction was frozen in Judea and Samaria) to a freeze in Jerusalem is non-existent. Abu Mazen thinks that because of things Mofaz said in opposition, Mofaz will force Netanyahu to accept a freeze. That won't happen. First, Abu Mazen doesn't understand that you say things in opposition just to 'get' the government, but those things are abandoned once you're part of the government. And even if that were not the case, Mofaz is in this government from a position of weakness. For now, at least, he has very little influence.
However, there was no indication he was ready to accept Palestinian calls for all settlement building to halt before negotiations could re-start. Netanyahu says halting settlement building would be a pre-condition and there should be no preconditions to talks.
Abbas reiterated the demand on Tuesday. "I will not return to the negotiations without freezing settlement activities," he said, enunciating each word to give with added emphasis.
Abu Mazen also believes that the Americans will come forward with 'new ideas.' The Americans aren't going to come forward with anything for the next six months. After the US elections, Obama is likely to push for a 'Palestinian' state if God forbid he wins a second term. Romney is much less likely to do so. But even Obama won't have 'new ideas.' Can Obama force Israel's hand if Congress is opposed? What could go wrong?
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, Campaign 2012, East Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria construction, Mitt Romney, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, settlement freeze, Shaul Mofaz
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:27 AM
3 Comments:
Abu Bluff has to drop his pre-conditions to hold peace talks.
He can have them or he can have nothing.
With an enlarged government, Netanyahu's negotiating hand is even stronger.
The bottom line though is the Palestinians don't want peace and no peace process will happen in the foreseeable future.
Netanyahu gave Mofaz political cover to join the government. But no one in Israel thinks peace with the Arabs is in sight in the next year. Whether Abu Bluff realizes time is not on his side is the question that will probably determine if the Palestinians want to gamble again with their future.
They never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity and it looks like they will do just that again.
Do I have the right foggy idea that title issues for the land in many/most of the "settlements" have been litigated over these past years? So standard title search data should be available for the areas that have been subject to litigation? Where is a map of those areas (in GIS layers by year, with notes on history and adjudication). Such an online resource document facts on the ground that supporters can use without emotion or religion (on any side) as the only arguments available.
The Palestinians are irrelevant. Maximum Leader Obama squeezed the stupid Jews for campaign money and how he doesn't care what they do or don't do. If I were the King of Jordan I'd relocate all the Syrian refugees to the West Bank and let Abbas sort it out.
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