Israel Matzav: How the West is preventing peace

How the West is preventing peace

Khaled Abu Toameh argues that 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen is negotiating with the 'international community' and not with Israel because he believes that he can get the 'international community' to isolate Israel and bring enough pressure on it to force it to accede to his demands. Abu Toameh argues that the only way to get the 'Palestinians' back to the negotiating table is for the West to stop playing along with Abu Mazen's game, and tell the 'Palestinians' that they will only find peace through direct negotiations with Israel.

Abbas believes that the international community is negotiating with Israel on behalf of the Palestinians. He is fully convinced that only increased pressure on Israel, and not negotiations, will bring about a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders.

And since the whole world, with the possible exception of the US Administration, “is on our side,” why bother return to the negotiating table with Israel?

The belief among the Palestinian leadership is that it is only a matter of time before Israel succumbs to the growing international pressure.

By negotiating with Abbas and his government, the Western governments are, in fact, keeping the Palestinians from resuming peace talks with Israel. Instead of negotiating with Abbas, these governments should be urging him to return to the negotiations with Israel as soon as possible and before it is too late.

But for now Abbas does not seem to be in a rush; this is why those who believe that real peace talks could be “revived” in the near future are living under an illusion. Abbas has set out his demands and conditions in a clear and straight manner and he is waiting for the international community to help him achieve all his goals.

There's another issue here. Abu Toameh refers to the need to return to negotiations 'before it is too late.' For the 'Palestinians,' it is never too late. They have turned down a state numerous times, and each time they turn it down, it is reoffered to them on even better terms. The only way the 'Palestinians' will come to the table is if there are consequences that derive from them not coming to the table.

Israel should be annexing land in Judea and Samaria every few months that the 'Palestinians' don't negotiate. It should be founding new Jewish towns and building on that land. Now, I know that many of you think that won't happen, and I realize the odds of Israel's leadership actually finding the courage to do what I suggest are not good. On the other hand, Israel may have no choice because of the 'Supreme Court' ruling relating to Route 443.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Israel has no solution to the dilemma presented by the 'Supreme Court' other than the legislative solution of annexing the highway. If the court insists on doing the same thing with the other highways from which 'Palestinians' are banned for security reasons, it is likely that we will have to annex those highways too. That could open up the possibility of Israel finally getting on with life by annexing land as an antidote to the 'Palestinian' refusal to come to the table. And that might actually force the 'Palestinians' to negotiate.

Israel Matzav: How the West is preventing peace