Why the U.S.-Israel settlement deal fell apart | The Cable
The Israeli line is that end of the negotiations over settlements is a good thing, because it will force the Palestinians to choose to either come back to the table without what Israel calls “preconditions,” such as a settlement freeze.
“It’s probably better to redefine the playing rules and the Palestinians are going to have to back down from their precondition,” the Israeli official said. “They can’t just wait for the Americans to deliver the Israelis on a plate.”
But the Palestinians view the failure of the U.S.-Israeli negotiations as just one more sign that the Israelis will never meet their demand to stop building in disputed areas while talks are ongoing. They also see the failure to convince Israel to agree to a settlement freeze as yet another sign the Obama administration isn’t willing to use sufficient leverage over Israel to advance the peace process.
“Although the U.S. administration may have their own reasons, the fact that they have backed down [from insisting on a moratorium extension], an objective they set for themselves a year and a half ago, is really of a great concern to us,” said the head of the PLO mission in Washington, Maen Rashid Areikat in an interview. “One wonders in the future if they will be able to get Israel to comply with international law to reach a conclusion to the process.”
In the most favorable analysis, by taking settlements off the table, the Obama administration can now come up with new and creative ways to get both parties back to the negotiating table — without constantly looking at the clock.
“We have removed self imposed obstacles by agreeing that we will give up on the settlement freeze and by removing the requirement for direct talks,” said Malley. But that still leaves all sides quite far away from real, sustainable progress towards peace. “All of the other obstacles remain,” Malley added. “The lack of trust and the huge gaps between the two sides, the divided Palestinians, the dysfunctional Israelis, the polarization of the region, the damaged credibility of the U.S… all those remain.”
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Follow the negotiations between the PA and Hamas about reforming a single Palestinian government.
As long as they go nowhere, and as long as Iran and others support Hamas’ extremism, there’s no deal that the PA can make with Netanyahu that’s even remotely acceptable to his constellation of Jewish extremists.
The PA government alone can’t accede to what Hamas charmingly calls the “Judization of Jerusalem“.
There’s pretty much no way that Israel is going to pull 500,000 settlers out of the occupied territories without retaining a very firm grip on Jerusalem and iron-clad assurances that the Americans and the Arabs will join to snuff out any further threats.
That isn’t going to happen, and can not happen, until Iran stops blocking any deal and/or backing the blockers.