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.”
The list, Ping
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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. \
Fascist America!
..................
Construction in areas that everyone acknowledges will be part of Israel, including the PA in 2000 and 2008, is only an issue because Kerry and Obama make it one. Following a long traditions amongst some folks insisting they can tell Jews where they can live, if they can expand their homes, and in the not too distant past if they can live and breathe. It should be no surprise that Arabs, who in an act of genocide successfully purged Jews from their homes of millennia across northern Africa and the Mideast, would appreciate the support. The notion is one that would appeal to any Jewhater.
a US official told Yediot Ahronot
Whoever that “unnamed official” is needs to be identified and fired.
“I wish to apologize for what my subordinate said about Israelis. Everyone knows the gooks are the smarts ones. I learned this in Vietnam. Where I served. In Vietnam.”
said America’s horse-faced chief diplomat, stamping his right front hoof on the floor.
they ignore all the faults of the barbarians of course
Even the stupidest Jews have begun to recognize that the IslamoNazi policies coming from WashDC will lead the Jews to their Destruction and Death.
Thank you, Obama/Kerry for being so amazingly obvious about it.
Truly, the good Lord works in strange ways... (but rest assured, He is at work for His people Israel ... and the Church...).
Actually everyone was dumb since the founding of Israel in 1948. Gone for over 1700 years, the Jews decide (with Western sympathy and later support) they can move into Palestine populated by intolerant Arabs and expect peace??!!!! In 1948 the Arabs were backwards but in 21st Century they are not so backwards. The Arabs already figure out the Jewish weakpoints, inability to assume heavy casualties. The 1973 War, the 1982 Lebanon incursion already proves it. The Arabs also found a very deadly weapon that even the US luckily faced late in WW2 and not earlier, the suicide bomber. It is nearly 70 years since the world put Jews into another kill zone, now it is a matter of time before the Arabs will unite and drive the Jews into the sea. I know many freepers find this sacrilege or worst anti Semite, but look at the geography and look at the numbers. No matter how one feels, numbers are numbers. If Isreal was the size of TX and not barely the size of NJ and have a large population of Jews, there is a chance to survive. Israel is too small, it is a matter of time. Now Iran will build nukes and missiles, the US is broke and want isolation, good luck Isreal.
Obama is running out of time to please the terrorists and getting more desparate.
Just trying, TRYING to read this, I kept thinking....
This is from AZconservative.
Lord, what a cluster fluk, and Obama and Kerry call
this diplomacy?
Afraid reality beat you out this time John....
“The Jewish people are supposed to be smart.”
That be racist.
“The Jewish people are supposed to be smart.”
And, it related news:
_____ people are supposed to be _____.
____ people are supposed to have ____.
This is NOT good. What kind of idiots are hired into our government. Is it some kind of magnet for stupid people???? I really don’t think that this was ALWAYS the case...
The jeeeeews are good with money. Everyone know that. There is the occasional Jewish doctor. But it’s hard to get their mothers to talk about them.
//sarcasm
Well, one thing’s for sure. Obama’s diplomats and flunkies are not smart.
And the end is nigh too.
But Israel does not put all the eggs into one basket. The slide of the USA is neither unexpected nor fast; any politician worth his salt could see it a decade before it started. Israel saw it; today probably every citizen of Israel is aware of it.
There are indeed many Arabs around Israel. They might be fierce and brave, but in World War II Africans were also very brave, running with spears against the tanks. Unfortunately, bravery is not always enough to win a battle; guns and armor are pretty important these days.
Arabs are fragmented; their countries are isolated; and many Israel's neighbors are fighting internal conflicts, from revolutions (Egypt) to a full-scale civil war (Syria.) Given the history of the land, this is not likely to change any time soon. Well equipped IDF will be able to defeat them. The entire period of Napoleonic Wars could have been eliminated with just one well targeted cruise missile, if not with one .50 BMG round. But Napoléon Bonaparte was a very smart guy, even if compared to good leaders of today. Leaders of Arab countries are nowhere that smart; their best skills are in the area of personal survival. War against Israel is bad for health of any such leader, and they know it.
Exactly WHO are these unnamed US officials and why does the US continue to meddle in this matter?
Why are Obama and Kerry so hell-bent on helping the Palestinians turn their Arab terriorist campsite/village into a sovereign country? Also, why do they keep insisting that Israel stop building on their own land and give up their capital city, Jerusalem, to the Arabs?
It creates leverage (a threat) against Israel. Why would the USA need such a thing is a different question.
why does the US continue to meddle in this matter?
<sarc text="Because all the problems within the USA and on the borders have been solved, and the USA is nothing short of Paradise. This is why bored government workers feel compelled to spread their wisdom to other, less lucky countries."/>
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