I was reading a rather mundane Haaretz diplomatic report about the results of the last Obama-Netanyahu meeting. One of the foci of the article was the confidence building measures Obama expects of Israel in order to persuade Mahmoud Abbas to enter into direct negotiations. Even these were rather prosaic and unimpressive. But what caught my attention was this:
In talks with the Americans, Israel demanded that the PA must also carry out confidence-building measures ahead of direct talks. Obama accepted Israel’s argument partially, and would like to see an end of the anti-Israeli campaign on the diplomatic front that the PA is conducting at the UN and the International Court in the Hague.
So the price for the PA to enter into direct talks with Bibi is ending Israel’s accountability for its possible war crimes in Gaza; an end to support for the Goldstone Report; an end to support for a UN investigation into the Gaza flotilla episode, etc. I haven’t even noticed that the PA is especially eager to enter into direct talks with the latest lying con-man (as far as Palestinians are concerned) to occupy the prime minister’s office. So why would they have any motivation to let Israel off scot-free for its misdeeds against the Palestinian people in return for yet another smoke and mirrors diplomatic foray by the Obama administration? The Palestinians have seen scores of these initiatives. They come and go speaking of Michelangelo to quote Eliot. But they end up amounting to nothing, just as this one probably will.
You gotta hand it to the Israelis though–they do have moxie. It takes guts to make an absolute fool out of yourself by making such a demand. It reminds me a bit of the extortion they attempted when the PA was supporting the campaign before the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of the Goldstone Report. Then Bibi threatened to cancel a $700-million telecom deal if Abbas didn’t drop his support of the Report. Abbas caved and faced a firestorm of controversy both from Palestinians and human rights groups world-wide. The PA “president” then regained his lost mojo and resumed his support for the Report. I never did hear what happened to the telecom deal.
It’s all window dressing anyway, Richard. It doesn’t matter who concedes what – the Israelis will lie and as always, the talks will lead to nowhere simply because Israel wants land, not peace. Netanyahu proved it again and again. The settlement freeze was the latest in a long history of farcical “agreements” Israel violated again and again.
Mary, your blank condemnation of what Israel is and does and wants takes little into account regarding the diversity of views, opinions, assent and dissent within what is called Israel. Of course Netanyahu and the government have to reign in their fringe and elected constituency, and so must also the moderate “peace camp” within Israel, the diaspora and general public refrain from inflaming their own radical fringe from the same mongering in the name of pursuing social justice; or is it the point here, in this blog, to not do that. Perhaps I err in my reading of the benevolent dictators’ comment rules, for I got from it that this was a forum for seeking solutions by reaching out, and that this article today was about confidence building as a cloak to evade responsibility,…or is the protestation in demonizing Israel behind the skirts of international bodies with other vested interests not without some nefarious intent also. I suspect confidence is built by candour and realistic expectations.
Mary speaks of reality. From Likud to Labor, Israel is behind the settlement movement. The minute peace camp within Israel has always been powerless to stop the colonization, and it will go on as long as US veto power over the UNSC is exploited to facilitate it.
History speaks for itself. I’m not “mongering” anything that can’t be easily confirmed as fact. The annexation of territory and the illegal settlements are a reality that can’t be refuted. The refusal of Israel to dismantle settlements, and on continuing to build them, is a hard reality, as is the separation wall which neatly slices Palestinian land into israeli hands.
I think history speaks for its authors, who write regarding events relevant to their communities, nations, tribes and epochs. A common saying has it that history is written by the victors; the inference being that the truly vanquished have no voice, because they are no more. Still, the ‘peace’ camp has a huge voice and following perpetuated greedily by the popular media in every corner of the globe, ‘warring’ against globalism, democracy, western liberalism, global warming and the young phenomena of the worlds’ largest ethnic minority struggling to survive and define its existence, in part, with statehood, which in itself is a fairly recent political concept and identity well delineated in the international best seller and common university reference text, EUROPE: A History by Norman Davies. If the tome leaves us with anything, it is that our institutions of governance are fleeting and fragile at best, and no ethereal notion of international law will ever raise it above its origins as a vessel of diplomacy. Walls go up and down all the time for reasons immemorial such as in China, Britain, Germany, Texas and Israel. There are no mans lands and to my grief even the two closest countries culturally in the world today, Canada and the USA, now have a bristling militarized border which until recently we could cross casually. We are not a threat to each other, but those who lurk in our midst seek to exploit that friendship to commit terrorist acts, however one may characterize them, on behalf of grievances, most not even occurring on our continent. The consequences are huge, and not clearly from a matter of a ‘land grab’ in the Middle East. So the Israeli Palestinian conflict is anything but cut and dried international law and evident historical fact. It is one of a legion in world crisis zones that needs be resolved. Heck, we can’t even reign in the tobacco industry which saps our economies and families. Some ‘peace train’!
It’s wild how those of the conflict camp can rattle on so much without really saying anything.
He likes the sound of his own voice & has a case of logorrhea.
RE: “the talks will lead to nowhere simply because Israel wants land, not peace…” – mary
FROM THE EARLY ’80s:
…If every sign that I see is to complete
Then I’m a fool in your game
And all you want to do
Is tell me your lies
Won’t you show the other side
You’re just wasting my time
All you do to me is talk talk
When every choice that I make is yours
Keep telling me what’s right and what’s wrong
Don’t you ever stop to think about me
I’m not that blind to see
That you’ve been cheating on me…
Talk Talk – Talk Talk (Version 1) [VIDEO, 03:21] – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuTYOB53xE0
Please check your email and consider if you would like to respond or request that I expand my argument regarding confidence building measures toward a two state solution based on an approximation of pre 1967 “borders”, which you advocate; as I loosely do too. Or are we all ‘gonna’ get pie in our face?
Abbas’s son was leading the bid for a cellphone network in what’s left of Palestine. The Israelis, having fucked about with the contract, used it to strong-arm Abbas.
Abbas showed his nepotism by crumbling in the face of Israeli demands.
That’s not nepotism. Nepotism is defined as a preference in hiring or promoting someone because they’re your relative.
What Abbas was showing was subservience.
RE: What Abbas was showing was subservience. – mary
MY REPLY: I believe richard01 was referring to Abbas’ nepotism in regards to his nephew’s involvement with the cellphone network. Perhaps Abbas would not have so easily “crumbled in the face of Israeli demands” (been subservient to Israel) if his nephew had not had an interest in the cellphone network.
Nepotism in protecting his son’s meal ticket. Kiss-assedness in licking Bibi & Barack’s tushes & boot heels.
Getting back to the issue, there is overwhelming evidence that Israel knows that negotiations are a game that mollifies the U.S. government while Israel continues to steal Palestinian land with very little resistence from the U.S. The Palestinian “state” that is envisioned is a tiny, demilitarized protectorate: If you can’t raise an army you don’t have full sovereignty which mens you are not a real state. Israel would never permit the Palestinians to have a real state. Stealng land while pretending to negotiate peace has for decades been a perfectly successful Israeli strategy. Sharon pretended he believed in a 2-state solution & Bibi loses nothing by a similar pretense.
Thanks for the critique guys. I don’t know whether to go to bed or watch The Great Zohan while farting and burping.
That may pass for wit where you come from, but not here. You’re on a short leash.
Please accept my apology for the witless comeback, and my thanks to all who replied to my comments.
what a game between bibi and bibi’s mole !!!