The Palestinians are not serious about negotations with Israel. It is evident to anyone who has followed the situation at any length, but they’re really making it easy to see that they don’t really want two states, side by side, living in peace. They want a Greater Palestine.
A few days ago, the Obama administration told the Palestinians not to expect the Obama Middle East Peace Plan until there are direct negotiations with Israel.
The Obama administration has informed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that it will not unveil mediation proposals or a Middle East peace plan before the start of direct, substantive talks between the two sides on final-status issues, a high-level Israeli official said.
So indirect talks have officially begun. Today, we learn that the Palestinians have no intention of holding direct negotiations with Israel at all, using the cover that Obama gave them in his Cairo speech (and that they’ve used as an excuse ever since):
The Palestinian Authority on Sunday responded to U.S. and Israeli calls for eventual direct peace negotiations by reiterating that it would engage only in proximity talks until Israel halted all settlement construction.
Do you think that Hillary Clinton will call Mahmoud Abbas and give him a 43-minute dressing-down over this news? Will David Axelrod go on the Sunday talk shows insisting that this is a huge insult to the Obama administration? No, they won’t. Nor will the media blame Palestinian rejectionism. Just look at this AP “news” story (which reads more like analysis) about the indirect talks:
The indirect talks mark the Obama administration’s first concrete achievement in Mideast peace efforts. However, expectations are low and the shuttle format looks like a step backward, following some 16 years of direct, if intermittent, negotiations.
Mitchell’s mission was devised to get around a deadlock over Israeli settlement construction. Abbas has said he will not negotiate directly without a settlement freeze, but Israel only agreed to a temporary slowdown in areas the Palestinians seek for their state.
That’s the narrative. The talks broke down 17 months ago, but only the Israelis are to blame.