Peace talks make a mockery of reality.Negotiations for a two- state solution are pointless if the US continues to ignore Israel’s colony expansion... As US Secretary of State John Kerry shuttles hopelessly between Palestinians and Israelis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership are right to insist that Israel should halt all colony construction and that the US and Israel must accept that Israel will withdraw from land seized in 1967 as the basis of negotiations. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a master at building prevarication and manipulating confusion, and under his sinister guidance, Israel says it will only talk without such “preconditions”. So it was valuable proof of Israel’s arrogant disdain of Kerry’s hopes of starting any peace talks when an Israeli planning committee on Wednesday gave final approval for the construction of 69 new colonist homes in occupied East Jerusalem, with the full awareness that this illegal and controversial move came the day before Kerry visited Israel and Palestine. The complete lack of Israeli interest in peace talks was articulated by veteran Palestinian politician Hannan Ashrawi, who said: “Israel is sending message after message to Kerry that settlement [ colonies] is their response to any peace initiative. And then they blame the Palestinians for not coming to the negotiating table!” Ashrawi condemned the US as Israel’s main international ally, pointing out that Kerry is “playing blind and deaf about Israel’s actions and its declarations”. The US did not help its position in the region when it made a ludicrously non- committal comment on Netanyahu’s casual disregard for the peace process, describing the latest construction permissions just ahead of Kerry’s visit as “unhelpful”. The State Department bizarrely also hoped that “both parties will recognize the opportunity and the necessity to go back to the table”. The Israelis and Palestinians have not held direct talks since September 2010, but even then their meetings fell apart quickly. They are not likely to move much forward with an Israeli government that is continuing to build on the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, and has not withdrawn from the hundreds of illegal colonies that dominate the Occupied Territories.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 10:21:32 +0000