Posted on 05/04/2014 11:25:01 AM PDT by SJackson
US Secretary of State John Kerry apologized this week for using the term ‘Apartheid’ in describing Israel’s status following the collapse of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Nonetheless, it appears that the Obama administration is convinced that Israel is by large responsible for the impasse in the peace process and therefore slated to pay the price for it in the near future.
“The Jewish people are supposed to be smart. You’re supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation,” a US official told Yediot Ahronot. “The occupation threatens Israel’s status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state.”
Veteran Yediot Ahronot columnist, Nahum Barnea quoted Friday several unnamed US officials who directly connected continued settlement expansion to the collapse of peace negotiations.
“The criticism against the Israeli government is presented in terms of wounds inflicted by a friend who could still be trusted: Israel is very dear to them, but the wounds are deep,” Barnea wrote in his weekend column.
“The negotiations had to start with a decision to freeze settlement construction. We thought that we couldn’t achieve that because of the current makeup of the Israeli government, so we gave up. We didn’t realize Netanyahu was using the announcements of tenders for settlement construction as a way to ensure the survival of his own government. We didn’t realize continuing construction allowed ministers in his government to very effectively sabotage the success of the talks.
“There are a lot of reasons for the peace effort’s failure, but people in Israel shouldn’t ignore the bitter truth – the primary sabotage came from the settlements. The Palestinians don’t believe that Israel really intends to let them found a state when, at the same time, it is building settlements on the territory meant for that state. We’re talking about the announcement of 14,000 housing units, no less. Only now, after talks blew up, did we learn that this is also about expropriating land on a large scale. That does not reconcile with the agreement.
“At this point, it’s very hard to see how the negotiations could be renewed, let alone lead to an agreement. Towards the end, Abbas demanded a three-month freeze on settlement construction. His working assumption was that if an accord is reached, Israel could build along the new border as it pleases. But the Israelis said no.”
“The president supported Kerry throughout the duration of the talks. The clearest example of that was his willingness to prepare for Jonathan Pollard’s release. Such a move wouldn’t have helped his popularity in the American security system.
“Moreover, when one of the president’s aides accused Kerry of the talks’ failure during a background briefing with the New York Times, the president made an exception and publicly supported his secretary of state.
“It is true that the president was doubtful. That was obvious from the start. He questioned the willingness of leaders on both sides to take the necessary risks. In the end, he realized he was right.
Kerry has invested a lot in his personal relationship with Netanyahu. They talked on the phone three times a week and sometimes three times a day. There were video conference calls and close to 70 meetings. The relationship of trust between Kerry and Netanyahu was crucial to ensure that Netanyahu tempered his positions and moved forward.
“There was a massive effort on our part to pull the wagon out of the deep quicksand it was stuck in. But the reality here hit us hard. Neither side had a sense of urgency. Kerry was the only one who felt a sense of urgency, and that was not enough.”
“At the end of a war there is a sense of urgency,” they said. And then one of them added bitterly: “I guess we need another intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress.
“20 years after the Oslo Accords, new game rules and facts on the ground were created that are deeply entrenched. This reality is very difficult for the Palestinians and very convenient for Israel.”
“One of the Palestinians who participated in the talks told an Israeli participant: ‘You don’t see us. We’re transparent, we’re hollow.’ He had a point. After the second intifada ended and the separation barrier was built, the Palestinians turned into ghosts in the eyes of the Israelis – they couldn’t see them anymore.”
“The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they’re also considered a stubborn nation. You’re supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation. The occupation threatens Israel’s status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state.”
“In the first six months, there were bilateral talks under our auspices. The two sides met about 20 times. In one of those meetings, special US envoy to the talks Martin Indyk left the room and the two sides were left alone.
“The talks allowed us to define the gaps between the two sides. In December, we realized it was time to present our own ideas. We held separate discussions, with Israel and with the Palestinians. Most of the talks were between Kerry and Netanyahu, in an effort to convince him to change his positions and bridge the chasm.
“At this point the Palestinians were happy. They saw a rift had been created between Kerry and Netanyahu. The rift came out to the open when Bogey Ya’alon launched his personal attacks on Kerry.
“But while we were focusing on efforts to soften the Israeli side, announcements of new housing tenders in settlements limited Abbas’ ability to show flexibility. He lost his trust in the talks. The worst part was when Netanyahu said Abbas had agreed to a deal of prisoners for settlement construction. It wasn’t in line with the truth.
“Abbas went into these talks a skeptic. Actually, they were all skeptics, but his doubts focused on Netanyahu. The Oslo Accords were Netanyahu’s creation. Abbas watched how Oslo opened the door to 400,000 Israelis to settle beyond the Green Line. He wasn’t willing to bear it anymore.
“And there were other things. Israel presented its security needs in the West Bank: it demanded complete control over the territories. This told the Palestinians that nothing was going to change on the security front. Israel was not willing to agree to time frames – its control of the West Bank would continue forever.
“Abbas reached the conclusion that there was nothing for him in such an agreement. He’s 79 years old. He has reached the last chapter of his life. He’s tired. He was willing to give the process one final chance, but found, according to him, that he has no partner on the Israeli side. His legacy won’t include a peace agreement with Israel.
“In February, Abbas arrived at a Paris hotel for a meeting with Kerry. He had a lingering serious cold. ‘I’m under a lot of pressure,’ he complained. ‘I’m sick of this.’ He rejected all of Kerry’s ideas. A month later, in March, he was invited to the White House. Obama presented the American-formulated principles verbally – not in writing. Abbas refused.
“The claim on your side that Abbas was avoiding making decisions is not true. He wasn’t running away, he was just stuck.”
“It’s true that Netanyahu moved (away from his positions), but he wouldn’t move more than an inch. We had to put a great deal of effort into this. When we tried to move Abbas, we couldn’t. As we said, he was shutting down, locking into his positions. ‘I made a lot of concessions,’ he said. ‘The Israelis didn’t know how to appreciate it,’ he complained.”
“He agreed to a demilitarized state; he agreed to the border outline so 80 percent of settlers would continue living in Israeli territory; he agreed for Israel to keep security sensitive areas (mostly in the Jordan Valley – NB) for five years, and then the United States would take over. He accepted the fact that in the Israeli perception, the Palestinians would never be trustworthy.
“He also agreed that the Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem would remain under Israeli sovereignty, and agreed that the return of Palestinians to Israel would depend on Israeli willingness. ‘Israel won’t be flooded with refugees,’ he promised.
“He told us: ‘Tell me if there’s another Arab leader that would have agreed to what I agreed to. I won’t make any more concessions until Israel agrees to the three following terms:
Outlining the borders would be the first topic under discussion. It would be agreed upon within three months.
A time frame would be set for the evacuation of Israelis from sovereign Palestinian territories (Israel had agreed to complete the evacuation of Sinai within three years).
Israel will agree to have East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
The Israelis would not agree to any of the three demands.”
This is understandable, though. Any one of these demands would’ve caused the Netanyahu government to collapse.
“That’s true, these are very painful compromises. If you’re looking for failures – this was one of them: We couldn’t confront the two sides with the painful solutions that were required of them. The Israelis didn’t have to face the possibility of splitting Jerusalem into two capitals; they didn’t have to deal with the meaning of a full withdrawal and the end of the occupation.”
“The more Israel hardened its demands, the more the Palestinian refusal deepened. Israel made this into a huge deal – a position that wouldn’t change under any circumstances. The Palestinians came to the conclusion that Israel was pulling a nasty trick on them. They suspected there was an effort to get from them approval of the Zionist narrative.”
From an American perspective, what will be the consequences of stopping the talks? Will the threat of a boycott against Israel increase?
“It’s hard to predict. The international community, especially the European Union, avoided any action during the negotiations. Now, a race will begin to fill the void. Israel might be facing quite a problem.
“As of now, nothing is stopping the Palestinians from turning to the international community. The Palestinians are tired of the status quo. They will get their state in the end – whether through violence or by turning to international organizations.
“The boycott and the Palestinian application to international organizations are medium-range problems. America will help, but there’s no guarantee its support will be enough.
“There’s a bigger problem threatening Israel in the immediate future. This is a very concrete threat. If Israel tries to impose economic sanctions on the Palestinians, it could boomerang. The West Bank economy will collapse, and then Abbas will say ‘I don’t want this anymore. Take this from me.’ There’s great potential for deterioration here, which could end with the dismantling of the Palestinian Authority. Israeli soldiers will have to administer the lives of 2.5 million Palestinians, to their mothers’ chagrin. The donating countries will stop paying up, and the bill of $3 billion a year will have to be paid by your Finance Ministry.”
Peace does not result from negotiation. Peace results from victory - one way or another.
Islam no longer needs to plan for Israel’s demise - The WH will do the work for them.
and US “officials” are supposed to have a few brain cells, too...
but alas, they obviously don’t
first, they are agents of Satan working for the enemy, Satan’s IslamoNazis and their expansion, aggression all over the world...
and
second, they are doing so TRANSPARENTLY (not exactly the transparency Obama promised for his regime, is it?)... which renders them now ineffective as even the stupidest of the Jews have begun to see through, come to grips with the fact you are enemies of the Jewish (and Christian!) People
not many brains in you WashingtonDC “officials”... not many at all... you struck out twice there....you can now start leaving your horns and tail in place, no point hiding them anymore....your forked tongue gives you away as Satan’s agents already
Thanks for the information. I enjoyed your post.
The Jewish people are smart.
The Nation survives in the face of terrible prejudice, therefore they are smart
“Liberal Jewish people are getting just what they deserve, if they were smart they wouldn’t vote and give money to fascists that are not unlike the fascist of old, NAZI, I know, I know, but we are not very far from it here in America.”
The liberal American Jew is the dumbest person on the planet. Like the Jews that helped the Nazis, the liberal Jew will once again be the useful idiot, hoping that the alligator eats them last.
What US officials?
Name them...Or are you talking about the traitors currently in charge?
FMCDH(BITS)
F#*K ABOMA AND THE WHOLE ABOMINATION ADMINISTRATION!!
Samantha Powers and her sick hatred for Israel.
Puke that she is and I’m sure everyone she surrounds herself with holds the same view.
We are led by morons, crooks, thieves and kids who never got over their 8th grade rejection. Stunted emotional midgets, every last one of them.
Well, obviously, we are not, since we destroy our own homes in the fatuous hope of appeasing the US’ government, which is a confirmed oil junkey trying to appease its pusher, the Saudis, who are trying to appease a street extortionist, the Palestinians, who hate us and want us dead. Smart people refuse to play these games.
The “occupation.”
OK, let Muzzies occupy it then, which is what they will do if the Israeli “occupation” stops.
And watch the carnage and misery shoot way up and watch the world suddenly say nothing.
If God can bless that clueless crowd, God can bless anyone.
Note: this topic was posted 5/4/2014. The latest war started by Hamas was in part due to the tireless efforts of Lurch to destroy Israel. Thanks SJackson.
You're a fool Fee... Arabs can figure out an 'inability to assume heavy casualties' about ALL Western cultures - BECAUSE we don't glorify death. We have something to live for... unlike many people living in Arab cultures.
Christians and Jews aren't in death cults. - we're in "be good and have fun" religions. We enjoy the world God has given us - it's one of the ways we show appreciation to God. We don't like heavy causalities because we value life - and we have something to live FOR...
Here's a question for you Fee - if in fact there are 72 beautiful virgins waiting for Muslims after death, WHY DON'T YOUR OLD MEN WITH 'ONLY' FOUR WIVES TAKE ON SUICIDE MISSIONS? haaaahaa I know the answer... do you?
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