How Israel-Palestine negotiations work: Israel demands big swaths of Palestinian territory; the Palestinians quibble the amount they have to hand over; Western media then frame Israels demands as a “generous offer” and the Palestinians as stubborn and implacable “rejectionists” who favour violence over peace. Its as if France had sat down with Britain and demanded to annex or colonise most of England, and when Britain inevitably protested, the media had gone beserk about British intransigence and irrationality. (In fact its far worse than that, because France doesnt already owe Britain reparations after occupying the country for more than 45 years.) “Seeing how weak the PA is, and how accommodating Kerry is, some Israelis now figure ... What the hell, weve got the room, why not ask for the whole house? ... “The poles of the debate are now being established as, on one extreme, the Kerry proposal (in essence, the Israeli position [put forward] at Annapolis [in 2008]), and on the other extreme, those within Israel who dont want to give up anything. The Palestinian position has vanished from the debate. Palestinians will protest when the steamroller runs over them, at which point everyone will say, “Are you still talking about the settlement blocs? That was already agreed upon.” And the Palestinians will then appear to be the spoilers.”
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 13:37:57 +0000