The Israeli-Palestinian (U.S.) Peace Talks

"The usual claim is 'occupation,' but the Israelis are only 'occupying' the West Bank because we -- in the form of Jordan -- occupied land promised to them, and then repeatedly attacked them."
"A more recent claim is 'settlements', but the Palestine Liberation Organization [PLO] was formed in 1964, before there were any 'settlements', so what exactly was it planning to 'liberate'? If you look at any Palestinian map to this day, it encompasses the entire country of Israel. To the Palestinian Authority and many Arabs and Muslims, all of Israel is one big 'settlement'. Last week, Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi said, 'Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth are Palestinian, despite the Americans and the Israelis.' Next week it will be some other pretext."
"The truth is that PA President Mahmoud Abbas has been trying to turn the State of Israel into the State of Palestine. He has been trying to create confusion in Europe and at the UN -- evidently, unfortunately, with some success. He has been falsely accusing Israel of committing 'genocide' in the Gaza Strip. Regardless of the fabricated numbers issued by Hamas, more than half of the 2,000 Gazans killed over the summer were Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist operatives, not 'innocent civilians'. It was Hamas that ordered its own people onto the roofs of apartment buildings in Gaza while Gazans were firing rockets, mortars and missiles into Israel. It was Hamas that used its own people as human shields to prevent Israel from being able to defend itself, or, when it did, so there would be more Palestinian 'dead babies' to show to the intimidated television crews, to make Israelis look villainous."
Bassam Tawil, Palestinian Journalist, Gatestone Institute, December 28, 014

"I said to him [Mahmoud Abbas], the choice is not between everything and nothing. And your choice in the end was to get nothing."
"For me, any day that goes by without a solution is another lost day For those believing in the idea of Greater Israel another day that passes without an agreement is another day of victory and taking more land."
Tzipi Livni, Israeli Member of Parliament

www.jewishnews.co.uk  Secretary of State John Kerry stands with Israel's Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni, right, and Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat

Back in March, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and introduced him to an American framework for a peace agreement. In that framework the U.S. administration reflected its views on major issues confronting both sides inclusive of borders, security settlements, Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem. Mr. Abbas was given a heads-up to consider the fairness of both Israel and the Palestinians agreeing to make certain compromises in the greater interest of finally reaching an agreement both could live with.

It appears that as Israel's lead negotiator in the talks, Tzipi Livni thought the framework fair and justified. Even Prime Minister Netanyahu had evinced a willingness to proceed with negotiations honouring the framework even while claiming to have certain reservations. Mr. Abbas on the other hand held his counsel, deigning to honour the proposed framework with a yea or a nay, and his senior negotiator explained the situation "difficult".

In other words, while Israel prepared itself to work within the framework proposed by the United States, meant to balance and moderate the perceived needs of both; the existing and the incipient country, President Abbas refused to entertain its use. Obviously seeing no need for any of the Palestinian demands to be compromised in the sacrifice of having to surrender to practical reality agreeing to not having everything they demanded.

In the event, Israel considered that to give the wavering momentum some incentive to continue, it was prepared to make additional offers. In the end, the Palestinians refused to honour the framework, and with that decision, dumped the entire negotiating process. Tzipi Livni at that time viewed her president's acceptance of a negotiation on the basis of 1967 borders and swaps to be a major shift in Israeli bargaining. As such, when the Palestinians made it clear they had no interest in continuing, it seemed simple enough to conclude that for them, it was all or nothing.

Should negotiations have proceeded, the government of Israel was prepared to release several hundred Palestinian prisoners, and should negotiations continue beyond the April deadline, Israel was prepared to slow down or freeze Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Negotiations at a standstill thanks to the Palestinian decision not to proceed, the Palestinians still insisted on a settlement freeze and the release of the hundreds of prisoners, and if that did not occur, they would proceed to the UN.

They did, in any event, surprising Tzipi Livni who still believed that given a chance the negotiations would proceed after all. They weren't given a chance, since the decision had already been made to begin a process whereby the Palestinians would join 15 international agencies, a move it swore it would not proceed with before the negotiations deadline. Confidence-building measures undertaken by Israel came to naught; all was refused by the PA.

And then to everyone's surprise came the announcement of yet another reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas. Which meant, needless to say, a complete withdrawal by Israel, since it would hardly be possible for the state to negotiate with a terrorist group whose mandate clearly states its primary goal to be the violent destruction of Israel.

Good to its reputation as a terror group, Hamas initiated increased rocket barrages into Israel, cooked a scheme to abduct three Israeli teens and murder them, infiltrated Israel through tunnels for the purpose of committing more terror attacks; all in the interest of demonstrating that they could, and matters heated inevitably into an Israeli response resulting in the Gaza war and additional propaganda coups for Hamas setting the stage for more dead Palestinians.

A Palestinian man looks at what used to be a tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip into Israel. NurPhoto/Sipa Press