Mahmoud Abbas wants to talk about a settlement freeze at the peace talks. But the settlement freeze isn’t happening. And there can’t be peace, no matter how many times George Mitchell shuffles between the parties and no matter what ludicrous deadline he sets so long as this goes on:
An Israeli infant was injured when Palestinians hurled rocks at a car traveling in the West Bank. The baby was treated at the scene of Tuesday afternoon’s attack near Karne Zur, south of Hebron, and then taken to a hospital in Jerusalem. Later Tuesday another car was damaged in the same area by rocks thrown by Palestinians, according to the IDF. Also Tuesday afternoon, Palestinians threw a firebomb at an Israeli car traveling near Maale Shomron in the northern West Bank.
Obama keeps saying he’s very concerned about Palestinian incitement, very much determined to have Abbas prove his mettle. So how about it — why doesn’t Abbas get on Arab media and condemn these acts? Instead of a settlement freeze, how about a rock-throwing freeze? A maiming-children freeze? (Hey, if this goes well, we could work up to an honor-killing freeze.) Oh, you say, Abbas couldn’t ensure that even if he wanted to. I see. Then can we stop talking about peace?
Change minds and change behavior. Then and only then is there something to discuss.
