U.S. drops demand for Israeli settlement freeze

[shaayecanaan]

JERUSALEM — The United States on Tuesday abandoned its effort to persuade Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, officials said, dealing a blow to efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Direct talks brokered by Washington were relaunched in September but broke down over the issue of settlements built on captured land that Palestinians seek for a state.

"We reached the conclusion this is not the time to renew direct negotiation by renewing the moratorium," a senior U.S. diplomat told reporters in Israel.

Palestinians have said they would not engage in any direct talks while Israelis build on territory seized in the 1967 Middle East War.

In Washington, officials said the United States was weighing a return to indirect talks following its failure to revive the direct negotiations.

Two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, gave three reasons why the Obama administration decided to abandon the effort.

They said that while Israel was willing to extend the moratorium it was not willing to freeze construction in East Jerusalem, something Palestinian officials had demanded as they want that part of the city as capital of their state.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40554057/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

[Hardrada]

1. On the road to a complete apartheid state!

[oberliner]

2. The Jerusalem question seems to be the dealbreaker

Unless they can work out some kind of deal on Jerusalem, they will always end up hitting this wall.

Clinton (Bill) seemed so close way back when to an agreement that was mutually acceptable.

[shaayecanaan]

4. I thought they were closer at the Taba talks...

but either way they are a lot further away now.

The Palestinians seem terrified of agreeing to something in principle and getting screwed in the details. They have had this mindset since the Oslo agreements which for the most part simply led to the accelerated growth of settlements. The Palestinians have no power to enforce any agreement so are completely dependent on the goodwill of the other parties once one is signed. They also know that ultimately the Americans will find it easier to put pressure on them rather than the Israelis if any issues of interpretation come up.

It seems clear that the Palestinians are not opting for a third intifada. Neither are they pinning their hopes on an agreement with Israel. Instead they seem to be aiming at increased diplomatic recognition, including recently South America and hopefully in the future with Europe.

As part of that strategy they seem be banking on the following:-

1) America will either relinquish its role as a global hegemon or go broke trying to hold onto it

2) Europe will come to the fore. Israel needs to develop its services economy and in this they are critically dependent on Europe.

3) With time, the impact of the holocaust and its utility as an omnipresent moral alibi for Israel's actions will fade, and the willingness of Europe to be equanimous on the subject of the occupation with it.

4) All things being equal, the Arab vote in Israel will increase to around 30% of the total. It is likely that at some stage Israel will face some kind of concerted civil rights campaign from these people, along the same lines as African-Americans. It will be difficult to sustain any kind of political majority without involving them.

If that happens, the Palestinians obviously hope they can do as well as their current proposal (based on Taba) or better.

[oberliner]

6. Interesting observations

I agree that time is on the Palestinians' side in terms of the points you've made.

[azurnoir]

3. reason #3 from the article

Finally, they said that there were some concerns about the size of the incentives the United States offered Israel — which Israeli sources said included 20 F-35 stealth fighters worth $3 billion — for only a temporary extension.

and on that basis I am almost glad to hear it has been called off, the US really can not afford these kind of 'incentives', especially considering the dealings to get unemployment insurance extended or leave a large number of Americans destitute OTOH I hope this does not lend to the Republicans further trying to use "support of Israel" as a wedge issue

[shaayecanaan]

5. I would have thought the US can't afford an $890 billion tax cut

but I'm wrong apparently. Although to be fair, the US is hardly alone in that regard:-

http://www.visualeconomics.com/gdp-vs-national-debt-by-country/

[oberliner]

7. Puts it in perspective

A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

[azurnoir]

8. well you would think that considering ..................

however your map is interesting I wonder if we'll be seeing Japan as the next country to file bankruptcy