Settlement Freeze, Peace Talks, and More...
As Israel's settlement Freeze deadline is about to expire, many are pondering what will be next? Will Israel continue to immediately build thus resulting in an immediate collapse in Peace talks, as Abbas hinted would happen?
Or will Israel shock the world and declare the freeze is not over? The pressure is on as the globe is trying to convince Israel that the settlement freeze will help peace talks progress. This is a farce notion.
In actuality, settlements and land in general have always been a topic of negotiation (in technical terms the land is non-declared) - where Israel has already shown it's ability to dismantle them for the sake of peace. Though I support the freeze (and am anti-settlements in General), it should have no barring on peace talks if both sides are truly serious. The Palestinians along with the world need to get rid of this thought that the settlements undermine peace - because they don't!
This is 100% Obama's fault and first error as President (in regards to ME affairs) - as he took an extreme 180 switch in policy, without proper consultation and messaging (all former US governments along with Israel and the PLO have addressed the settlements not as a pre-requisite for talks, but rather a topic within the talks themselves).
The world, and more importantly the Palestinians, are riding Obama's wave of words as policy and have thus created a bottleneck that looks impossible to release.
The Israelis are in a situation (domestic) that prohibits them from being able to execute a complete freeze, and Obama's team failed to recognize this fact.
Backtracking didn't help as we can see, and we are in for another failure in talks.
This could very well lead to rise in attacks and thus escalation in regional violence.
Let's hope not.
Or will Israel shock the world and declare the freeze is not over? The pressure is on as the globe is trying to convince Israel that the settlement freeze will help peace talks progress. This is a farce notion.
In actuality, settlements and land in general have always been a topic of negotiation (in technical terms the land is non-declared) - where Israel has already shown it's ability to dismantle them for the sake of peace. Though I support the freeze (and am anti-settlements in General), it should have no barring on peace talks if both sides are truly serious. The Palestinians along with the world need to get rid of this thought that the settlements undermine peace - because they don't!
This is 100% Obama's fault and first error as President (in regards to ME affairs) - as he took an extreme 180 switch in policy, without proper consultation and messaging (all former US governments along with Israel and the PLO have addressed the settlements not as a pre-requisite for talks, but rather a topic within the talks themselves).
The world, and more importantly the Palestinians, are riding Obama's wave of words as policy and have thus created a bottleneck that looks impossible to release.
The Israelis are in a situation (domestic) that prohibits them from being able to execute a complete freeze, and Obama's team failed to recognize this fact.
Backtracking didn't help as we can see, and we are in for another failure in talks.
This could very well lead to rise in attacks and thus escalation in regional violence.
Let's hope not.
posted by ehurwitz at 3:42 AM
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