Time to Abandon Never-Ending Futile Talks with Israel

It is time for the Palestinian National Authority to abandon its commitment to the pointless perpetual negotiations with the Israelis.

(LONDON) - It has been more than 20 years since the Madrid talks and the peace process between the Palestinians and the Israelis started. Thus far their abject failure has surprised even the most pessimistic of observers.

Diplomacy of distraction

In June 1992, about one year after the Madrid talks, then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told the newspaper Maariv: "I would have conducted negotiations on autonomy for 10 years and in the meantime we would have reached half a million people in the West Bank."

He was lamenting his election defeat and declared: "It's very painful... I will not be able to... complete the demographic revolution... Without this... there is no reason to hold autonomy talks as there now is a risk of a Palestinian state."

Two decades later, all subsequent Israeli governments with no exception, from the spurious left to the devious right, have demonstrated their commitment to the Judaization roadmap through protracted negotiation, "demographic revolution" and land appropriation that benefit Jews only.

When negotiation started in 1991, the illegal settler population in the occupied West Bank was 110,000. Today, as Shamir prophesied, their number in the Jews-only settlements has swelled to half a million.

Israel sees negotiations as a means of detraction rather than a route to a just peace.

Nahum Goldman, a Zionist leader in the 1970s, said: "Diplomacy in the Middle East is the art of delaying the inevitable as long as possible."

One-sided concessions

Sadly, the Palestinian Authority has been powerless. It has never missed an opportunity to prove to the world its best intentions by complying with every senseless Israeli demand without reciprocity from the Zionist state.

It annulled the Palestinian charter, changed books in schools, coordinated security arrangements that led to the arrest and killing of many Palestinian activists, stifled free media under the pretext of clamping down on "incitement" and subdued the second Intifada.

In return, the world's powers could not even get a temporary freeze on illegal settlement.

For 20 years, the international community, mainly Israel's chief sponsor the US, has missed no opportunity to prove its incompetence in dealing with Israeli intransigence.

While Jews-only colonies are mushrooming in every neighbourhood, Palestinians are refused building permits, their homes are demolished and the permits of the native population of East Jerusalem are revoked at an unprecedented level.

No incentive for peace

Under the current de facto peace, Israelis have no incentive to stop guzzling Palestinian land and the international community lacked the motivation to interfere forcefully as it did in other conflicts.

Undeniably, the majority of Israelis would rather keep things as they are than have a meaningful peace process.

A 2010 poll by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung revealed that a “majority of Israelis in the age group 15-24 favour a continuation of the status quo over an invigorated peace process".

It also showed that the majority of Israelis would "choose a Jewish state over a specifically democratic one".

Indeed, why should Israelis alter their roadmap to a "Jewish state" if they already enjoy a de facto peace, especially since the Palestinian Authority seems to have opted to surrender its will to endless negotiation?

Doing nothing is not an alternative. Winning over the world's public opinion brings empathy, not justice.

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vinni gambini July 2, 2012 8:15 pm (Pacific time)

4 SIMPLE reasons there's not going to ever be a so called Palestinian state! (be brave, be calm, read it carefully, and think carefully) #1.Arafat, the 'founder' of the so called Palestinian movement died in '04 with an estate over $1.2Billion. #2. There's never ever been a so called Palestinian state-ever. #3. There's no financial oversight, accounting, audit over the exact disbursement of hundreds of millions of dollars in financial aid. #4. The leadership, should've, could've, had plenty of opportunity to get over 90% of their demands, but, they continue to reject everything, unless they get 100%. And, they're not ever going to get 100%, because it doesn't leave any room for offering more later on. So, why is this so? And interestingly, how come so much blood get's spilled, and nothing get's accomplished? Sadly, this so called Palestinian statehood endeavour looks more like a hostage scenario, on a massive scale it defies logic. It's a well run racket, bamboozles the world......and the money comes in, and disappears. No progress in talks. And the same miserable life goes on. If you're smart, move. You know this Palestinian state isn't going to happen. Israel has "moved on" and they're developing in Judea and Samaria. It's too late and it's also TIME TO START NEW. Move your family to a pleasant place, where your kids can play, learn and you can make money and live a happy life. Or stay....and be angry, poor, your kids never having real fun or getting real educations.

Salaam Alaikum from the resident Goyam news editor: Got news for ya' vinni; Palestine has been a state for hundreds of years, and according to the Palestine Mandate, it never stopped being a state... a nation, Unadikum... we all feel that way, ya' copy that good buddy? That is the whole two state idea. Granted, that needs to end, it is really only one state and its name is Palestine.

You Israelis have crapped on every peace effort, sorry to be crude, but really that is a mild assessment. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters have patiently survived while you murder their children and set them on fire and drag their homes down with babies inside... but it is all drawing to a dramatic close and we are just a year or two away from Americans smelling the coffee... if you will, about their mistake of supporting Israel for so long. All it will take is a little more time, as mainstream media is coming around in ways that your hasbara and your inflitration of the movement can not stop.

The heart of the Palestinian is the same as the Belfast Resistance; ANC: the Tamil Tigers; the Jewish Resistance of WWII and the French and Italian Freedom fighters who kicked the sh*t out of the Nazi's and fascists and brought freedom; some lasting, some not... but in the end they are warriors kicking it in Valhalla while their oppressors reign on them for a few years in the human flesh and then go straight to hell for eternity. (That's you) Shukran!

M. Dennis Paul, Ph.D. July 1, 2012 11:48 pm (Pacific time)

Well done! Thankfully the citizens of Palestine have shaken the haze from their eyes and are now standing up to the PA.. calling for its demise. The very recent 2 days of assault on peaceful protesters by the PA Thug Police will open many more eyes.

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