Two Against One in Israel-Palestine Negotiations
Today saw the opening of the second round of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. These negotiations began in Washington two weeks ago, but do not appear to have become a historic moment — or even a false historic moment, like the Camp David Accords 10 years ago.
The Palestinians persist in their demands to freeze all Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank. The Israelis insist that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish homeland.” These two conditions alone are blocking any real advancement and excluding all other negotiation points. And yet the negotiations continue. They will continue on and on. President Obama is preoccupied with the upcoming midterm elections two months from now, where Democrats stand a good chance of losing if they do not make an effort to appear more pro-Israeli than Republicans. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu knows this. Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, knows this also. And yet the negotiations continue.
Israelis are convinced that any agreement reached with Mahmoud Abbas would remain purely hypothetical for the Palestinian opposition represented by Hamas. And yet the negotiations continue and will continue on and on. Obama believes that in order to reach an agreement, the negotiations must last the whole year. That is all you need to know to understand Mahmoud Abbas’ position: His term as head of the Palestinian Authority ends at the end of this year. He understands the risk of the United States and Israel seeing Hamas take over and spread their control from Gaza to the West Back, especially with the supposed ties between Hamas and Iran in recent memory. Israel is hedging its bets. It agreed to sit down at the negotiations table in order to sort out with Obama who will inherit this situation soon afterward. It agreed to continue meeting with Mahmoud Abbas to sustain its defenses against Iran via Hamas.
Israel is still taking advantage of disputes between Palestinians, as well as the divided Arab countries, to make them share the responsibility of a failed agreement under the “two states” principle. The negotiations will thus continue, but not with the interests of either the Palestinians or the Arab world in mind. And for those who are still not convinced, consider this evidence: At a table of three, the United States incessantly proclaims its eternal support for Israel. How can we believe for a single moment that the Palestinians can ever hope for a fair agreement? That would require a configuration that only occurs with twin forces, like in 1956 when Soviet leader Bulganin issued an ultimatum that forced the coalition of France, Britain and Israel to retreat from their attack of Suez. In other words, it would require two superpowers — one on each side of the table — to even begin to hope for an agreement that would bring fair and lasting peace. That is not the current situation. It is two against one, against Mahmoud Abbas. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next.
The Palestinians persist in their demands to freeze all Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank. The Israelis insist that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a “Jewish homeland.” These two conditions alone are blocking any real advancement and excluding all other negotiation points. And yet the negotiations continue. They will continue on and on. President Obama is preoccupied with the upcoming midterm elections two months from now, where Democrats stand a good chance of losing if they do not make an effort to appear more pro-Israeli than Republicans. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu knows this. Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, knows this also. And yet the negotiations continue.
Israelis are convinced that any agreement reached with Mahmoud Abbas would remain purely hypothetical for the Palestinian opposition represented by Hamas. And yet the negotiations continue and will continue on and on. Obama believes that in order to reach an agreement, the negotiations must last the whole year. That is all you need to know to understand Mahmoud Abbas’ position: His term as head of the Palestinian Authority ends at the end of this year. He understands the risk of the United States and Israel seeing Hamas take over and spread their control from Gaza to the West Back, especially with the supposed ties between Hamas and Iran in recent memory. Israel is hedging its bets. It agreed to sit down at the negotiations table in order to sort out with Obama who will inherit this situation soon afterward. It agreed to continue meeting with Mahmoud Abbas to sustain its defenses against Iran via Hamas.
Israel is still taking advantage of disputes between Palestinians, as well as the divided Arab countries, to make them share the responsibility of a failed agreement under the “two states” principle. The negotiations will thus continue, but not with the interests of either the Palestinians or the Arab world in mind. And for those who are still not convinced, consider this evidence: At a table of three, the United States incessantly proclaims its eternal support for Israel. How can we believe for a single moment that the Palestinians can ever hope for a fair agreement? That would require a configuration that only occurs with twin forces, like in 1956 when Soviet leader Bulganin issued an ultimatum that forced the coalition of France, Britain and Israel to retreat from their attack of Suez. In other words, it would require two superpowers — one on each side of the table — to even begin to hope for an agreement that would bring fair and lasting peace. That is not the current situation. It is two against one, against Mahmoud Abbas. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what happens next.
The whole issue of Palestine conflict needs a little bit of understanding and commonsense. Israel is a myth; a fraud against the ignorant and innocent Jews; and a drag on America. Here are startling facts: The Zionists got fed up with the Jewish God “Yahweh.” They didn’t see an end to the Jewish ‘exile.’ Turkish Empire is gone. British mandate wouldn’t last for long. Say bye bye to the Jewish God, who has been a curse and a scourge to the Jews. So, the radical Jews unleashed a wave of terror not seen by the Arabs before, declare the creation of Israel replacing the oath for the unfriendly God with an abstract “Rock” of Israel. David Ben Gurion, the founding father of Israel, rebuffed Rabbis and disdainfully rebuked God for “not doing enough for Jews” and, there, unworthy of the oath taken in His name. The result: Israel became a profane state for Jews, liable to blow up at any time through an act of the angry “Yahweh”. If one had an evil mind, there was an easy moment for him to create a discord among the Jews that could lead to a civil in Israel. Palestinians are clubbed together with the stupid Arabs, who are ripe for a change. Israel has come for them as a wake-up call. They simply need to rally to kick out the autocrats and dump the monarchies on history’s scrap heap. The real issue, thus, concerns Israel. Instead of becoming a home land for the Jewish Diasporas it has unwittingly become doom and gloom for them. I am a friend and a well-wisher of Jews in that I have found that Jews have had a golden period of almost twelve centuries consecutively in the Omayyad Spain and with the Ottomans. The Ottomans even sent ships to Spain to bring the oppressed Jews in safety to the Empire. There is no instance of an uprising on the part of Jews during all this period. What is more significant is that the Jews were spared from harm from the heavens. If Palestinians use their heads instead of hitting them against a brick wall, they have a Godsend opportunity to embrace the disenchanted Jews and turn them around into an asset by offering them a face saving and a ‘Safe Haven’.