Kerry's fool's errand over?
Still, a senior American official said Mr. Kerry’s decision not to return to the region immediately reflected a growing impatience in the White House, which believes that his mediating efforts have reached their limit and that the two sides need to work their way out of the current impasse.
In announcing the moves on Tuesday, Mr. Abbas said, “This is our right.” He has been under pressure from other Palestinian leaders and the public to leverage the nonmember observer-state status they won at the United Nations in 2012 to join a total of 63 international bodies.
“We do not want to use this right against anybody or to confront anybody,” he said, as he signed the membership applications live on Palestinian television. “We don’t want to collide with the U.S. administration. We want a good relationship with Washington because it helped us and exerted huge efforts. But because we did not find ways for a solution, this becomes our right.”
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While the Palestinians’ pursuit of the international route is widely viewed as a poison pill for the peace talks, Mr. Abbas and Mr. Kerry held out hope on Tuesday night that they could still be salvaged. The agencies Mr. Abbas moved to join include the Geneva and Vienna Conventions and those dealing with women’s and children’s rights.
“It is completely premature tonight to draw any kind of judgment, certainly any kind of final judgment, about today’s events and where things are,” Mr. Kerry told reporters in Brussels, where he was meeting with NATO foreign ministers on the Ukrainian crisis.
“I’m not going to get into the who, why, what, when, where, how of why we’re where we are today,” he added. “The important thing is to keep the process moving and find a way to see whether the parties are prepared to move forward.”
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While Middle East analysts widely praised Mr. Kerry’s determination, many thought he was on a fool’s errand. He long ago abandoned his original goal of achieving a final-status agreement within nine months, and in recent weeks he even de-emphasized his proposed framework of core principles for a deal, focusing instead simply on extending the timetable.
“It’s a process leading nowhere,” Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian pollster and political scientist, said on Tuesday morning. “The basic compromises that this Israeli government is willing to endorse are unacceptable to the majority of the Palestinians.” He added, “There is no chance.”
Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel, said: “All of the indications are that this is moribund. We’re now into Plan B, which has two parts: the blame game, which is well underway, and a last-ditch effort by the United States not to have the collapse lead to violence.”
Israeli officials remained silent about Mr. Abbas’s move Tuesday night. A spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declined to discuss it, or how it might affect the deal that had emerged earlier in the day to continue the talks for at least another nine months.
There's a list of the agencies (mostly agreements actually) that the 'Palestinians' have applied to join here. Earlier, Israel Radio reported that the 'Palestinians' had not yet filed the applications. That one wasn't true either. What could go wrong?
Labels: Abu Mazen, Barack Hussein Obama, Binyamin Netanyahu, John Kerry, Jonathan Pollard, Middle East peace process, Palestinian state RIGHT NOW syndrome, United Nations
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:48 PM
2 Comments:
Oh well... it's better for both sides this way. Some day, perhaps, the Palestinians will have a truly moderate leader and the talks may have potential to lead to peace not war.
Mr. Kerry, while I was always firmly against this latest effort of yours, I recognized and continue to recognize your good intentions and superhuman effort which you put into this.
And another talking point (or two) for those who accuse Kerry of having ulterior and/or anti-Israel motives for the talks: Please note that he backed down from imposing the framework agreement on both sides against their will. And also how he refrains from blaming Israel for not releasing the terrorists. These are not the actions of an arrogant or hostile person.
I'm considering even going so far as to thank President Obama for his hands-off approach here - perhaps he has changed the blame Israel for everything attitude which he learned from his friends in college and his church. But that will have to wait for the outcome of the Iran situation.
I wouldn't be too worried about the collapse leading to violence - that generally only happens when Arafat YM"SH is in charge.
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