Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed an unprecedented partial freeze on Israeli settlements nearly 10 months ago in order to serve as an impetus to bring the Palestinian Authority to peace talks. Basically, the gamble failed. For nine of those 10 months, the PA refused to come to the table. Now, in the last month, it comes, saying it will stay at the table only if the settlement freeze is extended.
Translation: Dictate the terms of a peace agreement without negotiating it.
And then, if the freeze is not extended, threaten to leave the talks. Same thing: Dictate the terms.
This does not bode well for an eventual agreement, which, by definition, two sides must agree to. Pardon the tautology, but it is precisely this basic, simple, fundamental, obvious, indispensable point that has prevented every attempt at peace between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, even long before there was a State of Israel. The point is the refusal to recognize that Jews have rights in Palestine; ergo, the Palestinian refusal to negotiate. The only successful Jewish-Arab negotiations, keep in mind, have been between Jews in Palestine and Arabs outside of Palestine, namely, in Egypt and Jordan.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration, having invested so much just to get the talks started, is exerting tremendous pressure on Netanyahu to extend the settlement freeze. This is a pure Catch 22. For if Netanyahu does extend it, his government is likely to fall, and then the talks are blown up just the same as if Abbas walks.
We predict some temporization, some jiggling and word-smithing, by which Netanyahu will cancel the freeze, yet simultaneously restrict construction in various parts of the West Bank, calling that restriction something other than a freeze. And if what we read is correct, the Obama administration is also exerting tremendous pressure on Abbas not to quit the talks, possibly offering him carrots of various sorts.
All this just clouds the underlying reality, however. Netanyahu is ready to deal; Abbas is either not ready or too weak to do so. Settlements are not now and never have been the crux of the conflict; for there is plenty of empty land in the Land of Israel for everyone. Just go there. Visit. All you see is vast tracts of desert between occasional settlements, be they Israeli or Palestinian. The crux of the conflict now and for the last 130 years has been the refusal of Arabs to acknowledge Jewish rights anywhere in Palestine. Netanyahu is wise and right to make this a central plank in his negotiating position.
To get what it wants, all the PA has to do is to negotiate. It seems too thick to see that the Israelis are pushovers for peace and will give away just about anything, even against their own interests. It is not a settlement freeze, or a lack thereof, that is the fateful decision at hand. That remains in the PAs hands.
The ball is in its court.
Copyright © 2010 by the Intermountain Jewish News
