It is increasingly
obvious that the two-state solution is close to obsolete, although it is
still not politically correct to say so in polite diplomatic company.
The two-state solution has little chance of coming into being, because
the Palestinians do not want the constricted West Bank state that Israel
can give them. And they are just not ready to close the book on all
claims against Israel in exchange for a small West Bank and Gaza state.
And so, PA President
Mahmoud Abbas seized the first opportunity he could find to flee the
negotiating room while blaming Israel. After all, Abbas never really
wanted to join these talks in the first place. He certainly did not
want, and still is not ready, to make any concrete concessions to bring
about an end to the conflict with Israel.
We need to remember
that Abbas joined the talks only under extreme American pressure and
only after Israel bought Abbas' participation by promising to release
from jail Palestinian terrorists over a nine-month period.
It should have come as
no surprise at all to Washington and Jerusalem that Abbas would bolt the
scene once the initial period of talks was about to expire, and the
terrorist releases had come to an end. This is exactly what Abbas did in
2008 too, when he fled the negotiating table to avoid having to say no
to Ehud Olmert's overwhelmingly magnanimous peace offer.
It actually astonishes
me to learn that some people, such as Israel's chief negotiator, Justice
Minister Tzipi Livni, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry,
apparently were caught off guard by Abbas' decision to relaunch his
diplomatic war against Israel by unilateral application to 15 different
U.N. agencies and international treaties.
Why on earth would they
be surprised? Wasn't it clear to them that from the beginning that this
was Abbas' preferred route, his "Plan A" and certainly his "Plan B"?
Did they really believe that Abbas was going to negotiate a peaceful
two-state solution with Israel? How could they not know that the
Palestinian strategy was and remained the browbeating of Israel through
isolation, demonization and criminalization? Where was the vaunted
American and Israeli intelligence?
Only the self-conceit
of Livni and Kerry, to the effect that their presence in the room would
make all the difference, could have blinded them to the realities of
Palestinian obduracy and ill will.
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