7 thoughts on “Yaalon Gives Kerry High Forecheck to the Boards – Tikun Olam תיקון עולם إصلاح العالم
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  1. I am not a huge fan of Yaalon, but I do not see how you can so wholeheartedly dismiss what he knows about the Palestinians and their plans.
    Do you not think Abu Mazen’s survival is largely dependent on the Israeli presence in Judea ? I think it is naive to think there is absolutely no chance of Hamas taking over in such a situation. I mean, it only happened in Gaza, right ? That must be a statistical error.
    I do think that the settlements do not promote peace, but the world isn’t black and white. It’s not “settlements=bad, if we just got rid of them everything would be peachy”.

  2. ” there have been no negotiations between us and the Palestinians for all these months – but rather between us and the Americans.”

    It is funny to hear this openly admitted by one of the Israeli negociators, because it is what critics of the American role as ‘broker’ have claimed for years: The Palestinians are so marginalized that Israel does not even bother to negociate directly with them. They negociate with the Americans on what concessions the Palestinian side should make.

    1. Elizabeth makes a good point. But apparently this fact makes little difference: if the USA were, as often said, Israel’s lawyer, then the USA would be negotiating NOTHING that is not acceptable to Israel. This appears not to be the case.

      My question for Sec. Kerry: Why, when the Palestinians are out of the picture and the USA is [trying to] dictating terms to Israel doesn’t the USA dictate the absolute return to the green-line and other terms imagined by UNSC 242 (1967)?

      And when that fails, as it will — even whatever twaddle Kerry is selling is failing, why doesn’t Kerry TERMINATE all USA involvement with “peace talks” and BEGIN international talks aimed at requiring Israel to remove all settlers, the wall, all settlements, and the siege of Gaza? That is, back away from peace-making (which is not required by international law) in favor of pushing for a lawful occupation (which does appear to be required by law — and which is, even if not required by law, easy to define and clearly acceptable to the wide world).

  3. @pabelmont – in your world life seems to be so simple, nothing is complex, and law is some form of superior morality over any agreement.

    So simple for Israel just to move back to 67 lines and dismantle everything without any guarantees, agreements, peace, etc and everything in your utopic world will be just dandy. “no more war no more bloodshed” just like that.

    Well Israel tried that in Gaza, dismantled and withdrew to the 67 lines – and you guys criticised her there for unilaterally doing so without the Pelestinian’s agreement. Now you want the world to impose on Israel (and de facto also on the Palestinians) a withdrawal that would leave chaos and inevitably lead to constant conflict and bloodshed on both sides.

    Slow as it may be, negotiation is the only possible path, and the pressure must be on the negotiation process and not on the partial solution of withdrawal without all the small but essential details.

  4. ” there have been no negotiations between us and the Palestinians for all these months – but rather between us and the Americans.”

    I think this is just Ya’alon exercising his mouth. He is not a negotiator. The Israeli negotiator is Tzipi Livni, Justice Minister/MK, veteran high level Israeli politician, dovish, much superior character than Ya’alon or Netanyahu, has trust of Palestinians.
    The Palestine chief negotiator is Saeb Erekat, also a heavyweight, negotiated the Oslo Accords. These two are working well together from all accounts. Kerry is acting only as cheerleader and facilitator; he is not, as Ya’alon implies, negotiating with anyone.

    What Kerry is doing is trying to smooth the way to a final status agreement between the two parties. What that translates to, and the reason why Ya’alon exploded, is that Kerry is literally driving the Israelis to settle, removing the objections that Netanyahu throws up. He’s driving the Palestinians just as hard, they also will have to settle for less than what they want.

    Nice piece, thanks Richard. I thought the hockey metaphor was perfect.

  5. “… win a prize and let us be” begs the rather immediate question – “And who will pay for your army, Mr. Ya’alon, if we let you be? Who will provide you with planes, bombs, electronics and innumerable other shinies you so manly crave?”

    Marc

  6. Ya’alon sounds like a nutbag we had to suffer in the US called Dick Cheney. In fact they look awfully similar. Must have been separated at birth.

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