(Photo by: Jonathan Ernst / Reuters)
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet in Amman, Jordan, this Tuesday for direct talks. This will be the first time the two sides have met since President Mahmoud Abbas walked out on negotiations in 2010.
According to Jordanian Foreign Minister Spokesman Muhammad al-Kayed, the purpose of the meeting is to “achieve a Palestinian-Israeli peace accord that embodies the two-state solution and addresses all final-status issues by the end of 2012.”
It’s hard to imagine – after Israel has already offered the Palestinians all the territory it could possibly give up for peace, only to have those offers repeatedly rejected – that either side would be interested in another round of fruitless negotiations. It seems obvious that the Quartet (comprised of the US, UK, Britain, France, and Russia), which has invested heavily in the peace process over the last twenty years, is pushing for renewed talks.
Most Israelis see the new round of “talks” as an exercise in futility forced on them by a world obsessed with solving a conflict that is, at the moment at least, unsolvable. As one Israeli friend said to me, “There is no goodwill left, there is no trust {between the Palestinians and Israelis}, yet once again we are sitting down to talk peace. It’s a show for the western world.” Another was emphatic: “If we can’t even resolve the issue of fixing a walkway which connects the Western Wall to the Temple Mount, then there is no way we are going to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict!”
There’s every reason for this lack of trust. In the past few years, the “moderate” Palestinian faction, the Palestinian Authority (P.A.), has tried to forge a unity government with Hamas, which openly calls for Israel’s destruction. Then there was the attempt by the P.A. to achieve statehood in the U.N.. This action was in breach of the Oslo Agreements, which stipulates that both parties agree to reach a two state solution within the frameworks of negotiations, rather than unilateral actions.
Meanwhile, the PA’s recent admittance into UNESCO and its attempt to have the Cave of the Patriarchs admitted as a mosque by UNESCO only served to drive the peace process further in the ground. Add these moves together and you get a clear picture of a Palestinian leadership that has no interest in peace, and an Israeli public that has every reason to be pessimistic.
The fact that the Quartet does not understand these simple fact and continues to push the two sides to reconcile is absurd and counterproductive.
What do you think?
12:55 am
It’s ridiculous that we (Israel’s’ “allies”) keep forcing her to negotiations that amount to nothing more than another propaganda opportunity for radical Islam. We should be supporting her in stabilizing the region by absolutely and completely destroying any state, organization, or ragged group of protestors that so much as throw a stone at an Israeli citizen. Like it or not, Islam at its inception was a declaration of war on the rest of the world. We have allowed them to grow in strength now until they think themselves strong enough to assault and overthrow the rest of the world- starting of course with Israel if they can. We have been given only two choices here by Islam; submit to the most chaotic authority the world has witnessed, or shalom them buggars to the pit where they belong!
10:19 am
I agree with the article. This is pointless and an exercise in futility until the palestinians renounce their goal to have Israel terminated as a nation and people.
11:52 pm
I agree with you. Maybe once we get rid of Obama, we can actually get a president that will treat our allies in the manner they should be treated.
9:21 am
9:14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
9:15 And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the LORD thy God.