It's not peace, Madam Secretary
Why should Hamas stick its head into a government that isn't even capable of getting the Americans to pressure Israel to freeze the settlements for a few months?
By Akiva Eldar Tags: Israel settlements Hamas Hillary Clinton Israel newsAll of a sudden, after 10 months and who knows how many meetings, freezing construction in the settlements is no longer a precondition for negotiations. True, until now the Palestinians were willing to negotiate the end of the occupation while their partner made it worse. That is how we have gone from 109,000 settlers - not including East Jerusalem - when the Oslo Accords were signed 16 years ago to more than 300,000 today. Until when, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says, will they have to remain suckers? True, all U.S. presidents since then, including Hillary Clinton's husband, treated the settlements just like the weather: an interesting topic for conversation, but impossible to change. But Barack Obama has promised a change, not more of the same.
Peace initiatives have always come without preconditions, and certainly without the precondition of a complete end to violence between the two warring parties. That is supposed to be the result of the diplomatic process, particularly in the case of negotiations between the occupier and occupied. But Netanyahu established an iron rule during his first term as prime minister: "If they give, they'll get - if they don't give, they won't get." In other words, no negotiations as long as there is violence. Netanyahu was proud of his differences with Yitzhak Rabin: He would not conduct the peace process as if there was no terror, and he would fight terror as if there was no peace process.
And how are we to explain Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's renewed demand to make the renewal of talks contingent on the Palestinians' withdrawal of their initiative on the Goldstone report? Isn't that a precondition? And how are we to define the Quartet's conditions for recognition of the Hamas government: an end to violence, recognition of Israel and honoring previous agreements? Are these also not preconditions?
The road map, which received the official stamp of the UN Security Council six years ago, established two preconditions: the end of violence on one side and the freezing of construction in the settlements on the other - including that required for natural growth. The decision also states that Israel must evacuate all illegal outposts put up since the beginning of Ariel Sharon's term as prime minister. That section is included in the first stage of the road map, which is two stages and a number of months before negotiations on a permanent agreement can be renewed.
U.S. generals, and even Israeli ones, have confirmed that the Palestinians have fulfilled the precondition set for them. It's hard to find anyone who will say this about the Israelis. If, God forbid, buses were to start blowing up in Jerusalem again, Netanyahu would not be seen near any Palestinian leader. He wrote in his book that it is forbidden under any circumstances to negotiate with terrorists. But to build during negotiations on land that the entire world claims is not yours - that's something else. The main thing is that Netanyahu promised in his Bar-Ilan speech that he supports two states for two peoples. Even Hillary Clinton said this was wonderful.
Since March 2002, an Arab peace initiative that makes normalization contingent on the end of the occupation has been waiting for Israel. Obama has pleaded with friendly Arab leaders to grant Israel an advance on future concessions to prepare the goundwork for the peace process. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and a few Gulf leaders agreed to launch initial steps of reconciliation. But even they, like Obama, had a precondition: freezing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. They did not ask for anything more than what Clinton announced a few months ago: a complete cessation without natural growth, without illegal outposts and without excuses.
The Palestinian public learned on Saturday that even the darkest hope of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his comrades has gone the way of all his predecessors. Why should Hamas stick its head into a government that isn't even capable of getting the Americans to pressure Israel to freeze the settlements for a few months? All they have to do is wait until election day in the territories when Netanyahu will hand over hundreds of prisoners in return for captured soldier Gilad Shalit. The important thing is that there will be no preconditions.
If Hamas lacked a reason to reject the initiative for reconciliation with Fatah and wait patiently for another round of the "peace process" to go the way of its predecessors, and have the West Bank return to its bosom, then Mrs. Clinton supplied just such a reason, in a big way.
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Even if preconditions are not usually useful, they are utterly understandable this time. If Israelis are building more and more on land which must be part of a Palestine state, how can any Palestinian believe that they plan to yield that land? Are Israelis mad people who would spend billions on settlements if they intended to hand them over to Palestinians in short order? No. Deceit is the game here.
Syria for that matter. They will make it a fight for survival and to the death. Peace negotiations is only something they hold out to gain strategic advantage. The sooner Israel realizes this reality , the better Israel's chances for security. Obama doesn't give a damn about the Jewish state. All he cares about is claiming credit for something the will help build his status. He is so concerned about the approval of the Muslim world that he will not support Israel if it comes to the ultimate decision. He can't be trusted to keep his word and will change his policy in less than a moments notice.
God is on Israel's side....in the end Israel will remain...
The idea that the palestinians want peace and a "two" state solution is ludicrous...they are bent on the destruction of Israel and nothing less... Let's start with the fact that the Israelis didn't throw out the arabs...in fact, they tried to get them to stay. Now they want "right of return?" How about the brutality of sending 1000's of rockets into civilian areas of Israel over a multi-year period? How about the terrorists from Gaza, the West Bank and Lebonon that enter Israel and blow up innocent civilians, including women and children? How about the palestinians refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state that it is, or even acknowledging their right to exist??? Truth be told, Israel should just throw every palestian out of the West bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem by force and kill any of them that resist or try to sneak back in... Here's the negotiation....get out and stay out or die!
THe palestinians won't have to end up with "a small landmass" if the Israelis stop building settlements. And the statement that the 1967 line is "just" an armistice line cuts both ways.
The Palestinians always try to change horses in the middle of a race. Not even Obama can do it. Freezing settlement construction has never been necessary to negotiate peace and it isn't now. Long established tacit understandings and custom preclude it. The problem is Abbas and his preposterous beliefs and hatred of the Jews. Negotiations will determine future borders and make any discussion over settlement construction irrelevent. Bibi's commitment to severely limit construction and not utilise any land is more than a gesture of good faith. The dream of Arabs inundating Israel with refugees and taking it over is delusional. The '67 armistice lines are just that and nothing more. It is time for Abbas to get real. There are no perfect conditions to negotiate. At this rate the Palestinian Arabs might end up with Abbas' pride and nothing more other than perhaps some day a small landmass possibly confederated with the other Palestinian nation -Jordan.
...sure sure I know you feel invincible right now like reality will never catch up to you. You feel that the nonsense you wrote is the reality and that of course shows how out of touch and in the Israeli bubble that you really are. I think it's about time the Palestinians simply declare a state within their 22% of what's left, claim East Jerusalem as their rightful capital and then bring in international peacekeepers. Fayad has already hinted at this, and I fully believe that even the US would back the effort. Beliefs and incurable rage like yours has stopped all manner of peace for far too long. It's time folks like you are marginalized as the crackpots that you are and sanity can then take root. Blue Helmets to Palestine!
Several of Israel's leaders have bought into the strategy of "establishing facts on the ground." Basically once a settlement is constructed, it is a fact that suddenly has historical permanence. With such "facts on the ground," Palestine continues to be eroded. Settlements and exclusive highways interconnecting them with Israel divide Palestine into islands disconnected from each other. Continued settlement construction prevents a contiguous, viable Palestinian nation from ever coming into existance. Israel will always have control and be able to isolate and constrain any one of these Palestinian islands. Any Palestinian government becomes a dependency of Israel. Palestine will be a separate nation only in name unless 1967 borders are fully restored. If those are the conditions the USA is promoting, which it appears, than it would be better for a single state. In time demographics will decide whether Israel remains a Jewish state.
see the "big picture." The settlement construction issue is paramount through out the entire world, except in the minds of these two gentlemen. Why? There is a new President in the White House and the policies are different: first--Obama started on the middle east from the first days in office. second -- Comprehensive Peace..24 months three treaties..Palestinians, Lebanonese, and Syrians.
Why should Israel agree to anything with the track record of the PLO? That is what negotiations are for and why not have it reverse and make it a precondition that Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, no right of return, no armed Palestine, and understanding that the 1967 borders never defined Israel and never will. That is fact and not a ploy like a freeze on Jewish homes being built and if it changes facts than Arabs must stop all building immediately as a pre-condition because you know what? We won our wars.