U.S. Admits Israeli-Palestinian Talks Over 2-State Solution Not Happening Soon

washingtonpost.com:

CAIRO -- The Obama administration has concluded that an early resumption of high-level negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians over a Palestinian state is unlikely in the near future -- an acknowledgment that it has fallen short, for now, on one of its major initial foreign policy goals.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[JTHC75]

The admin has just absolutely screwed this up. It's not that they're doing the same thing as before--they've actually made things worse!

[rissole]

Of course nothing is happening. The Obama administration will drag it out until they leave the White House and say what all their predecessors did, "We tried". In the meantime Israel will receive more of our money, weapons, ammunition, political cover at the UN and keep building settlements.

[Caru]

Threaten them. Threaten to nuke the entire region, Israel and Palestine, if they do not negotiate peace.

[LeeCalif]

As one of the former Israeli foreign ministers once said, to paraphrase: the peace talks keep the world talking and meanwhile Israel creates the facts on the ground. Take a look at the changes in the map of Israel since 1948 and it's impossible to miss what's happening. Israel is taking the whole enchilada and there's not much to talk about. The only thing slowing them down is their strategy of trying to keep the world talking so they can avoid a direct reprimand. Not that a reprimand would make any difference but it would be uncomfortable. The US isn't going to hassle them about it. There are probably very few people involved in these talks that don't know this already.

[rosiebond007]

Why are we pandering to this group who actually spy on the US ??

OBAMA PROMISED TO PUSH FOR RESOLUTION HERE.

WHY THE DELAY ?? PEOPLE ARE REALLY, REALLY SUFFERING IN PALESTINE.

[Rand]

Instead of trumpeting about how wonderful "your side" is for making such negotiations possible, or blaming the "other side", how about simply saying that BOTH sides should grow up, accept that neither is going away and sit down to talk

I know that SOME here will claim, as before, that I'm an "Israeli agent" for not placing the entire blame on Israel

[chlai88]

Both sides must have the "push" factors to push them to negotiate. People won't move when there's no incentives or disincentives. But going forward, I believe the present situation only brings more headaches, grief and instability to both parties and their political leaders and this is probably enough reason a negotiated peace is highly possible in the future.

[Caru]

No, I agree. Chest beating does no side no good.

[Fireslayer]

The only explanation for Obama's 6% favorable rating in Israel is that this country is vastly controlled by the right-wing urge to annex the West Bank and ethnically cleanse it. It is right to suppose that a few of those who hate Obama do so because he is in fact in Israel's pocket.

Why do what let our Congress and world peace remain hostage to these barbaric elements?

[jordanispalestine]

The "barbaric elements" in Hamas?? I agree!!

[MarcusT]

"Clinton came to Jerusalem and got tripped up by her own words. She applauded Bibi's alleged willingness to take some steps to "restrain settlements." She used the powerful word "unprecedented" over and over. But she forgot to state explicitly that the US was still disappointed in him, that his efforts were not sufficient, and that US policy on settlements had absolutely not changed.

Oops.

The Palestinians were predictably furious. Obama's credibility lost points in the Arab world. Clinton's efforts to undo the damage with much more careful words - planned, scripted, dotting every policy "i" and crossing ever policy 't" - helped a little, but for the most part the damage was already done. In the public's mind - in the media's mind - she had come to Jerusalem and caved, completely, to Bibi.'

[FatherKindly]

Her selection was a mistake and she will, ultimately, prove to be disastrous. No matter what she says, it would seem that she is still pandering for neocon support for her next run for some office or another

[omobob]

Israel has never been in favor of a two state solution. The Israeli solution is one Jewish State where arabs hold menial jobs and are treated as second class citizens. "We must do everything to ensure they (the Palestinian refugees) never do return." – David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948

[foxisms]

You can't justifiably make life hard to bear for a whole community by witholding basic supplies, shelter and services necessary to survival because there is an extremist faction living among a people.
This isn't the right thing to do for either faction in the M.E. or anywhere else.
In our own country we did not punish all the people of Chicago for the riots and civil disobedience of 68. We didn't cordon off downtown Oklahoma and make life miserable for everyone there when the Federal Building was bombed and in neither episodes of the WTC being attacked did we, round up the people of Arab nationality and place them in ghetto like living conditions for years and hold them all accountable.
Why is this allowed to be the case here?

[MosheDayanHero]

"there is an extremist faction living among a people."

Well there was as you call an extremist factions living among Germans in the 30s. And just like in Gaza, an elected government.
Clue--- they living among, they are a terrorist organization elected by Gazans to lead them towards war.

[foxisms]

Not.
The majority of the people in Gaza are no different than you or me.
Trying to survive and not being given the basic means to work or provide for their families.
But if you too wish to picture all Palestinians, don to the last infant, child or grand parent as simply mad extremists and that somehow allows you to rationalize denying them the human rights that allow them to do so, enjoy yourself.
For the M.E. will never rectify under those sort of dark visions.
Even you must reap what you sow.
It's immutable.

[grandtrunk road]

Nonsense. You are making a false equivalence.

[ray01]

Moshe

Who is leading whom towards war?

Published on Monday, May 11, 2009 by Haaretz (Israel)
Israel Knows That Peace Just Doesn't Pay
by Amira Hass

Successive Israeli governments since 1993 certainly must have known what they were doing, being in no hurry to make peace with the Palestinians. As representatives of Israeli society, these governments understood that peace would involve serious damage to national interests.

Economic damage:

The security industry is an important export branch - weapons, ammunition and refinements that are tested daily in Gaza and the West Bank. The Oslo process - negotiations that were never meant to end - allowed Israel to shake off its status as occupying power (obligated to the welfare of the occupied people) and treat the Palestinian territories as independent entities. That is, to use weapons and ammunition at a magnitude Israel could not have otherwise used on the Palestinians after 1967. Protecting the settlements requires constant development of security, surveillance and deterrence equipment such as fences, roadblocks, electronic surveillance, cameras and robots. These are security's cutting edge in the developed world, and serve banks, companies and luxury neighborhoods next to shantytowns and ethnic enclaves where rebellions must be suppressed.




http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/11

[ray01]

Moshe pt 2

Israel Knows Peace Doesn't Pay

The collective Israeli creativity in security is fertilized by a state of constant friction between most Israelis and a population defined as hostile. A state of combat over a low flame, and sometimes over a high one, brings together a variety of Israeli temperaments: rambos, computer wizards, people with gifted hands, inventors. Under peace, their chances of meeting would be greatly reduced.

Damage to careers:

Maintaining the occupation and a state of non-peace employs hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Some 70,000 people work in the security industry. Each year, tens of thousands finish their army service with special skills or a desirable sideline. For thousands it becomes their main career: professional soldiers, Shin Bet operatives, foreign consultants, mercenaries, weapons dealers. Therefore peace endangers the careers and professional futures of an important and prestigious stratum of Israelis, a stratum that has a major influence on the government.

Damage to quality of life:

A peace agreement would require equal distribution of water resources throughout the country (from the river to the sea) between Jews and Palestinians, regardless of the desalination of seawater and water-saving techniques. Even now it's hard for Israelis to get used to saving water because of the drought. It's not difficult to guess how traumatic a slash in water consumption to equalize distribution would be.

[ray01]

Moshe pt 3

Israel Knows Peace Doesn't Pay

Damage to welfare:

As the past 30 years have shown, settlements flourish as the welfare state contracts. They offer ordinary people what their salaries would not allow them in sovereign Israel, within the borders of June 4, 1967: cheap land, large homes, benefits, subsidies, wide-open spaces, a view, a superior road network and quality education. Even for those Israeli Jews who have not moved there, the settlements illuminate their horizon as an option for a social and economic upgrade. That option is more real than the vague promises of peacetime improvements, an unknown situation.

Peace will also reduce, if not erase entirely, the security pretext for discriminating against Palestinian Israelis - in land distribution, development resources, education, health employment and civil rights (such as marriage and citizenship). People who have gotten used to privilege under a system based on ethnic discrimination see its abrogation as a threat to their welfare.

© 2009 Haaretz

[alysheba 3]

Does the US acknowledge that they are one of the obstacles to peace? The fact that the US favors Israel cannot be ignored. Hillary's speeches have made sure of that, and the recent actions by Congress have certainly helped confirm it.

And saying that Obama supports both sides cannot be true while he refuses to acknowledge the atrocities Israel committed during Operation Cast Lead.

[Macready]

well said alysheba3 . . . totally agree the US is as big an obstacle to peace in the Middle East as israel . . .

[mommamia526]

Whether or not the U.S. is the issue and at fault appears to be irrelevant. Palestinians and Israelis have problems. Those two parties should resolve it. I see from Israeli side there is research to find out what can be done, what would remedy problems, withdrawal from Gaza, and a host of proposals. The response from Palestinians is njet, no, no way, we ain't going to do THAT, you owe me, the WORLD owes us, if it were not for, you, them, they, then.. All that may, or may not be true, Alysheba, but as long as Palestinians make their destiny dependent on what others do or do not do, they have no power to change a thing. This week I read that Palestinians tend to retire between ages 40-45! And that only 20% of Palestinian women work. The conclusion of that Israeli Report was that the reason Palestinians retire so early is that their work is hard labor, plus they have extended families who support them. It is, therefore, so said the report, necessary for Palestinians to get other options (than manual/hard labor). That requires educational opportunity. But educational opportunity is not enough if there is no willingness to learn and work hard at it. As I stated a few times this week, the way out for Palestinians is education, job skills, a trade, and normalization right where they are.

[mommamia526]

Israeli/Pa­lestinians talks not happening soon! Israel has been willing to talk and has made proposals. The PA faction 1 (Abbas) says, well we will have talks, but the outcome is going to be x, y and z and you WILL agree on that a priori, or else...no talks. The PA faction 2(Hamas) has said, no talks, no peace, no way, Jose, we will have WAR, until all of Israel is an Islamist state. I do not see one voice in there, where the U.S. has said no discussions. It is the PA, is it not? So, the PA wants something, it hopes to get something, and it states, we are not going to accept your gift, UNLESS - that is PA faction 1, and PA faction 2 says: we will not accept your gift, we will instead overrun and kill you! Excellent. Just so that I get it right, and that is the fault of...the U.S. As usual, the PA has no responsibility, nothing to offer, the whole world just should do as it dictates! Right! Got it!

[lbsaltzman]

We are never willing to acknowledge that we are an obstacle to peace. To do so would be to acknowledge that our government lives in fear of the power of the pro-Israeli lobby. Until that power is broken, the U.S. will never be able to force Israel to the peace table.