Israeli leftists may not be excited about President Obama’s trip to Israel, as Jonathan wrote yesterday, but they are taking it a lot better than the Palestinians. The president is not in Israel to try to play Weekend at Bernie’s with the moribund peace process, and that’s not a bad thing. A friendly visit from the American president and a chance to interact with Israelis in person is a fairly low-risk way to try to build some good will, especially for a president who feels he has been misunderstood by Israelis.
But the Palestinians don’t see it that way. The New York Times reports today that the Palestinian leadership is promising to make President Obama regret this trip by punishing him for his lack of interest in pressuring Israel while he’s here. One of the great mistakes made by Obama in his first term was his demand for a Jewish building freeze as a precondition to negotiations–a demand that boxed Mahmoud Abbas in as well. But now Abbas is threatening that if Obama doesn’t repeat this mistake now, Abbas is going to the International Criminal Court:
A Palestinian legislator, Ziad Abu-Amr, said Mr. Abbas would make clear to Mr. Obama that he would return to the negotiating table under either of two conditions. One is a mutual six-month freeze in which Israel halted building in West Bank settlements and Palestinians refrained from using their new observer-state status in the United Nations to pursue claims in the International Criminal Court or other agencies. The other is a broad agreement on borders, dividing the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea along the pre-1967 lines, with some land swaps to accommodate the largest Israeli settlements.
This is a remarkably petulant and inane stunt. One of the concerns held by Israel and the U.S. when the Palestinians went to the United Nations in the fall to ask for unilateral recognition was that Abbas and his cronies would go to the ICC and wage lawfare against the Jewish state–and almost certainly, as the Palestinians have themselves suggested, against Americans as well. Abbas is now proving this concern to have been well founded.
The story, by Jodi Rudoren, goes on:
“If he manages to convince the Israelis to sit and negotiate, then the Palestinians wouldn’t go to any other place — if he fails to deliver the Israelis, Abu Mazen will be forced” to go to the international agencies, Mr. Abu-Amr said, using the Palestinian president’s nickname. “If Obama goes back without any significant visible step that will revive the peace process or give hope to the parties, the visit may be counterproductive.”
Does Abbas think having his allies threaten the president this way will get results? Does he think Obama intimidates easily? He’s not going to use his meeting with Obama to threaten the president to his face, is he?
Later on in the article, Rudoren qualifies for some kind of non sequitor award when she writes:
Not far away, at the Al Bireh Youth Foundation, which was expanded in 2010 with $336,000 from the United States Agency for International Development, workers spent Tuesday afternoon erecting a covered entry in preparation for Mr. Obama’s visit. From the road outside, the Israeli settlement of Psagot is easily visible.
And? Why is it important that you can see one town from another? Rudoren doesn’t explain, and the sentence doesn’t come amid a discussion of Israeli settlements. But that’s clearly the implication, since it appears in an article comprised wholly of Palestinian grievances. Yet Psagot could serve to remind readers not of Israeli intransigence but of Palestinians’ predilection for violence. Way back in 2001, reporters were writing of Psagot’s proximity to Ramallah/al-Bireh for another reason entirely: “Since peace talks broke down last year, Palestinian gunners in Ramallah have taken aim at Psagot’s homes almost every night,” explained one report from April of that year.
And that violence was part of the Palestinian terror campaign waged in the wake of the Palestinians’ rejection of the two-state solution. It’s quite a pattern: commit widespread violence to get the international community to pressure Israel to do whatever it can to offer the Palestinians their own state with a capital in Jerusalem, then reject that offer, then shoot at every innocent Israeli civilian they can find. Lather, rinse, repeat. You’ll excuse the president for not allowing himself to be manipulated by bad-faith extortionists on his long-awaited trip to the region. And I wouldn’t be surprised if he tells Abbas that himself while he’s there.
Obama will make the Palestinian demands on Israel his own. He has done so for his entire first term, and this pattern will continue. He will tell Israel to agree to borders that cannot be defended, or PA will take you to the International Criminal court. This is what Obama has always wanted. That is why he did nothing to stop PA from getting upgrade status at the UN.
The following letter was submitted to the Israeli newspaper, haaretz.com : n nIt should be clear that neither a one-state nor a two-state solution can work for the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The Palestinians are divided, and lack the capacity to effectively govern their areas of responsibility. However, they do show some capacity to govern at the city level. n nPerhaps the best option is an eleven-state solution: Israel would be one. The others would be Gaza, Nablus, Hebron, Jenin, Jericho, Ramallah, East Jerusalem, Tulkarm, Qalqilya, and Bethlehem. n nIsrael would formally declare war on each, and separately negotiate peace treaties with each, establishing their boundaries and governments. The Palestinians would get the the territories occupied by those cities together with a surrounding buffer area around each, suitable for building, to allow for expansion. Israel would get all the territory in between, which would include all their settlements, and a strip along the border with Jordan. n nThe Palestinian city-states would be encouraged to unite in a federal union which could represent it in the United Nations, but it would initially not have much power at the local level. Over time that might change, and boundaries might be adjusted. n nThis will not satisfy Palestinian aspirations, but it reflects the reality on the ground, which is the only thing that can be the basis for a lasting solution.
If legality matters, the Palestinians will get a rude awakening. It should be a matter of time.
"If legality matters" n And if the bubbeh had beitsim she'd be the zaideh.
Jodi Rudoren is an Israeli bu2721tch reporter nested by Rupert Murdoch to run Israel commercials on New York Times while Obama in Israel to Redherring away the public opinion from the nothingness of this trip. Palestinians are reckless but not dumb to think that Obama will waste his time talking to Israelis about peace. Peace is a mirage that Israelis enjoyed chasing for the past 7000 biblical years. Listen to the bricks of Auschwitz Dachau Birkenau. Israel turned Peace to a boring game to extort Jews worldwide for handouts. It’s an occupational hazard. Israelis hates it as much Arabs do. I think they are more competent to get it than Arabs. But who cares? Never mind about Cairo. The Real torture was watching those Israeli children jumping like mongoose singing Shirley Bassey’s old songs for Obama as if he’s a pedophile. Israelis lost their mind. Jerusalem artichokes and red mullet tossed with green soybeans prepared by Chef Shalom Kadosh. Are you trying to kill him now or nuke Iran or both or what? Obama is Chicagoan Hikikomori, his main Diet French Fries & Burger. I don’t need to wait for Bibi/Obama meeting outcome. Obama snubbed Bibi as Netanyahu delivered his carping dull speech. Obama loathed every moment of it. His body language obviously ain’t friendly. Bibi’s cover-up narrative about Middle East Prosperity was foolish because Obama knows very well that Bibi would love to nuke the entire Middle East if he’s allowed to. Bibi is finished. Idiots never learn. In order Not to offend Arabspringers, Obama skipped Kotel Mugshot Rituals that Israelis crave unless he tours Israel’s Nightmare; Dome of the Rock as well. He’s visiting a church instead. He will have no Mugshot inspecting Hamas Rocket Stockpile that Israel uses to milk US Sympathy and fools Petty. Obama doing what he’s doing, going where he’s going, and avoiding what he’s avoiding. Though Abbas is powerless to peace with Israel Obama will visit Ramallah to mark his mating ground. Now I feel better. Obama hugged Peres as friend and jabbed Bibi as another Nut-Job with a lot of egos trying survive.
your rambling dissertation attests to the fact that you are truly a low consciousness entity. nBest for all involved if you wrap your lips around an exhaust pipe and breath deeply for a couple minutes- and that goes for all the other members of your vile cult known as Islam.
Replying to jefffixler1 nAnglosexuals passion to fake convection. n
case closed!
One thing the Palestinians have in common with one strand of “Western” opinion is a dire view of human nature. In honor of the trip to Israel, I reposted this blog http://clarespark.com/2012/09/28/bibi-and-the-human-nature-debate/, “Bibi, and the Human Nature Debate.” Many far right conservatives are gripped by the degeneration narrative, a product of fin de siecle Vienna and its modernist Jews. We still haven’t gotten over them.