Palestine solidarity demonstration in Dearborn, Michigan (near Detroit) holding banner calling for Obama to work toward ending the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The 5,000- strong protest was held on December 30, 2008. (Photo: Alan Pollock).
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
EDITORIAL
Stop the Settlements First, Obama!
2 November 2009
‘We have come up with nothing new.’ For once, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has said it as it is. And about time too! For far too long the Palestinians have gone along with the pretention that they are making “progress” in the peace process with Israel.
After another round of those increasingly pointless ‘talks’ with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, Abu Mazen for once let the Americans have a piece of his mind.
By refusing to play the ‘talks-talks’ game with Israel even as it continues to build and expand settlements on the stolen Palestinian land, Abbas has underscored the increasing frustration Palestinian side has been experiencing in ‘engaging’ the Israelis.
In doing so, Abbas has given expression to the growing anger among ordinary Palestinians who want Israel punished for its recent war crimes in Gaza, rather than talk with it.
Israel is in the dock. The five-member UN commission headed by Justice Richard Goldstone has found the regime in Tel Aviv guilty of ‘war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity.’ The commission findings are before the UN Security Council and General Assembly. The UN is to debate the report this week.
With both Libya and Turkey—currently head General Assembly and Security Council respectively—pushing for action against Israel, all eyes are on the world body and its ability to protect peace and administer justice to a long oppressed and persecuted people.
So the last thing the Palestinians want right now is more talks with Israel. Especially when they haven’t delivered anything all these years. President Abbas understood this when he refused to play the ball even when repeatedly pushed by the Americans. Which is how it should be. For the ball lies in Israel’s court. The Palestinians are the aggrieved party. If America – and the world – wants peace, it has to push the Israelis, not the Palestinians who have nothing more to offer.
Not long ago President Barack Obama and his refreshingly different policies and vision generated immense optimism and euphoria across the Middle East—and around the world. Even Hamas, which shared a turbulent and hostile relationship with Washington under Obama’s predecessor George W Bush, acknowledged and welcomed the positive change in US foreign policy under this president.
However, this historic opportunity to resolve the Palestine-Israel conflict that has poisoned the Middle East for nearly a century and dangerously destabilised our world faces the risk being squandered yet again.
Unless the US pushes Israel to fall in line and resolve all its issues with the Palestinians, including the Palestinian land it has occupied, there is no hope for the Middle East peace process. And the first crucial step to restart this process is the immediate and total freeze on Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.
Most outside observers apparently fail to fathom the Palestinian insistence on the freeze of Jewish settlements. These settlements continue to gobble what little remains of the Palestinian land. That tiny piece of Palestinian territory is crucial to setting up of the much talked about, ‘viable’ Palestinian state.
The US argument, therefore, that the Palestinians should continue to talk with Israel settlements or no settlements overlooks this crucial reality. What would the Palestinians talk about after the settlers have encroached and eaten away all their land?
Egypt backs Palestinians on settlement freeze
Egypt FM says US must provide guarantees on illegal settlements, East Jerusalem, peace efforts.
CAIRO - Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit on Sunday said Cairo "understood" the Palestinian refusal to resume talks with Israel before a freeze of illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
Abul Gheit made the remarks at a joint news conference with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh after a surprise visit to Cairo by Jordan's King Abdullah II for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The meeting came a day after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed for a swift resumption of peace negotiations, despite the Palestinian insistence that Israel must first halt its settlement activity.
"It is not reasonable or acceptable to conduct negotiations with the continuation of settlements," Abul Gheit said.
The United States, which had backed Palestinian demands for a settlement freeze only a few months ago, must provide "guarantees... about settlements, East Jerusalem and the peace effort in general," he said.
"The peace efforts are facing a real problem which is essentially due to the fact that the Israelis are determined not to respect the (Middle East) 'roadmap' which calls for a total halt to settlements," Abul Gheit added.
Judeh said he "agreed" with his Egyptian counterpart about the difficulties facing efforts to revive the negotiations.
"There is still a chance to achieve peace," Judeh said. "But there are still difficulties and obstacles in surpassing the dispute between the Israeli and the Palestinian sides."
"In the future, none of us will be able to assume the responsibility of having lost the opportunity of making peace efforts succeed," Judeh added.
During talks Saturday with Clinton in Abu Dhabi, Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas insisted on a complete Israeli freeze on settlement activity before the resumption of talks with Israel.
But later in Israel, Clinton said talks must resume "as soon as possible" and praised hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's stance on the thorny issue as "unprecedented."
Sunday November 1, 2009
SCENARIOS - Abbas dilemmas as U.S. backs Israel on talks
By Ali Sawafta and Erika Solomon
REUTERS - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's rejection of an Israeli settlement freeze as a condition for peace talks puts Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a spot.
As Abbas faces an apparent shift in the Obama administration's diplomatic strategy and comes under U.S. pressure to relaunch peace negotiations suspended in December, here are some of the scenarios that could play out:
ABBAS TALKS NOW
Abbas is unlikely to break off negotiating contacts, at least not with U.S. special envoy George Mitchell. Were he to re-engage decisively with the Israelis at this stage, however, he could face trouble at home.
For months before a trilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the U.N. General Assembly in September, Abbas and his aides had said there could be no such meeting before a settlement freeze.
Abbas's decision to attend confirmed to many that ultimately the aid-dependent Palestinian Authority has little practical choice but to keep in with international powers seen as having influence over Israel.
Turning up at the U.N. meeting, however, provided fresh reason for Abbas's many domestic critics to condemn him, not least Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Launching negotiations with Israel right away, in spite of the row over settlements, would surely hand new political ammunition to his opponents just three months ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections.
So if Abbas chooses to keep talking, it is more likely to be in the face-saving format of indirect negotiations mediated through U.S. and other international envoys.
ABBAS HOLDS OUT AGAINST TALKS
Abbas could try and hold out against resuming negotiations with Israel in the hope that the United States, where Obama has also staked considerable political capital on getting the two sides back to the table, could eventually offer him something that he could show to his home audience as a benefit.
Palestinian analysts suggest that an ideal offering would be a U.S.-drafted outline of a framework for a final agreement.
Holding out against negotiations could also improve Abbas's electoral standing against Hamas -- though it remains unclear whether the Jan. 24 election will be held in the face of Hamas rejection of the vote.
But it is also far from certain that Obama is willing or able to extract from Israel the sort of concession that Abbas would be able to present as a gain to his domestic critics.
ABBAS GOES ON REJECTING DIRECT TALKS
Palestinian analysts note that Abbas built his career as a negotiator in the shadow of the late Yasser Arafat. To go on rejecting talks indefinitely would be against his nature and also risk validating critics' view that past negotiations have brought no benefits to the Palestinians.
Abbas could argue that turning his back on talking to Israel gives him time and space to focus on ending the Palestinian political schism between his Fatah movement and Hamas, a rift that has created a major hurdle to peace talks.
Should uncertainty about whether Abbas will negotiate with Israel drag on, some analysts fear that frustration with the stalemate could foster a resurgence of violence.
While few seem to have an appetite for a return to the bloody Intifada of a decade ago, sporadic tensions and violence, such as that seen in Jerusalem's Old City in recent weeks, always has the potential to flare up into more serious trouble.
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