Quite simply, they want it all

Barry Rubin, JPost:

No matter what the Palestinian Authority is offered – money, concessions and even steps toward statehood– the response is always “no.” Media, academic “experts” and governments seem to find this amazing phenomenon very hard to understand.The answer is simple, but a lot of the people paid to deal with this stuff don’t get it. So let me elucidate: The Palestinian Authority (PA) wants everything.

The PA wants an independent state on all the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem with no restrictions, no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, no serious security guarantees, no limits on militarization, no agreement that this means an end to the conflict, no insistence that Palestinian refugees be resettled in the state of Palestine, and nothing to prevent them from pursuing a second stage of wiping Israel off the map entirely.
Now, one could say it’s common for people to want everything and to give nothing in exchange but that certain factors – missing in this case – push them toward compromise.

These factors include:

• Knowing they can’t get a better deal. The Palestinians know the West will always offer more if they are intransigent.

• The impasse favors your adversary because your intransigence will gain it international support. In this case, the more stubborn the Palestinians are, the more Israel is blamed.

• Economic pressure. Since the PA is almost completely supported by foreign aid that is not threatened by its hard line, this pressure does not exist.

• Public opinion pressure to change the situation. In this case, Palestinian public opinion is relatively radicalized and ideological and does not demand a compromise settlement.

• Concern that your political rivals will “outmoderate” you and win by offering to make a deal. In this case, the opposite is true: rivals “out-radicalize” one another and threaten to destroy you politically (and perhaps even physically) if you make a deal.

• Belief that time is not on your side. Due to religious and nationalist ideology, along with misperception of Israel, the PA (and even more so Hamas) believes that time is on its side.

That’s not a complete list. But the point is that the world in general – the United States and Europe, the UN, Arabic-speaking countries and Muslim-majority states – have created a “perfect” system.

Here’s a brief description:

• The PA has no incentive to make compromises for peace, so it won’t.
• The world insists that “peace” is an urgent top priority.

• The only variable is Israel, which must be made to give way. But Israel won’t because of past experience and the fact that the risks are now too high.

Deadlock.

So nothing will change. There will be no peace process, no Palestinian state. No “progress” will be made.

...

This is not left-wing or right-wing but merely an explanation as to why all the schemes and theories of those who do not see these facts never actually take wing. It may not be politically correct, but it is most definitely factually correct.

Now, you might ask, do I just criticize or do I have constructive policy advice?

I do. Here it is: When the Palestinian Authority rejects the Quartet proposal for negotiations, the United States, European Union and anyone else who wants to go along tells them, “We’ve tried to help you and you don’t want to listen, so since we have lots of other things to do, we’ll go do them. Good luck, and if you ever change your mind and get serious about making peace you have our phone number.”

The previous paragraph would send shock waves throughout policy circles, right? But why? If you can’t solve a problem and – let’s be clear here – the problem doesn’t need to be solved immediately, then you work on other problems. There are no shortage of those! I hope you have enjoyed this article and found it useful. We are left, however, with the following problem: Those in positions of political, media and intellectual power don’t get it.
The writer is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center. He is a featured columnist at Pajamas Media and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) journal.

65.6% of Ma'an readers are anti-peace talks

Ma'an News Agency (a Palestinian media outlet) has a poll on the right side of their website that says:

Peace talks with Israel are:

Essential to achieving statehood

Counterproductive, power imbalance too great

Necessary, but only with unbiased mediators

The answers goes as follows:

Essential to achieving statehood -89 (23.2%)

Counterproductive, power imbalance too great  - 252 (65.6%)

Necessary, but only with unbiased mediators - 43 (11.2%)

I can't really tell the difference between the first and third option, so I'll count them together as a total of 34.4%.

That still leaves 65.% of Ma'an readers believing that peace talks are counterproductive.  Ah, because you know, peace talks between the two parties that will have to live together in any final agreement are somehow counterproductive.  So what's productive? I can only assume bypassing these peace talks, violating the Oslo Accords, and following their plan of unilateral statehood bid at the U.N.

The U.N. can't make a state.  The U.N., over the past few decades, has lost every shred of legitimacy, and most people will tell you that.  But when it comes to Israel... OH!!! All of a sudden you have people shouting at you "Resolution BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH."  The U.N. won't be the ones who will be forced to make peace with the Palestinians.  It's the Palestinians and Israelis who will have to live side by side.  Netanyahu has been speaking on Arabic media to ensure Arabs that the Israelis are prepared to make peace.  But Abbas, and the Palestinians, don't care for talking with their Israeli neighbors, but would prefer to bypass this.

Because direct peace talks would have to lead to a final agreement.  Something no Palestinian leader has been prepared to do.  Oslo? Sure, it's an interim agreement.  That's perfectly fine.  But a final agreement to end the conflict which still leaves Israel standing? No way.

I have attached a picture of the poll:

Let the world remember this poll when they complain that there is a lack of peace.  Let them know who is causing it.  Let them know who opposes peace.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon - "Palestinians are using settlement issue as distraction"

JPost:

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Sunday that the Palestinians are using the issue of settlement construction in order to distract the world from the so-called Quartet of Middle East mediators' demand to renew peace talks, according to Israel Radio.

Speaking during a tour of Gilo for foreign journalists, Ayalon added that construction plans for the east Jerusalem neighborhood are not a matter of "political timing," but rather a response to the needs of residents.

Israel on Sunday formally accepted the Quartet's proposal for re-starting negotiations with the Palestinians, following a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his senior ministers.

"Israel welcomes the Quartet's call for direct negotiations without pre-conditions with the Palestinian Authority, which was already suggested by US president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, even though Israel has a number of reservations which it will bring up in the negotiations."

Israel received rebukes from European and American diplomats over the plans in Gilo, with the US calling the move "counter-productive" and Europeans, including European Foreign Affairs chief  Catherine Ashton, saying it was the kind of "provocative" action that should be avoided as per the Quartet's statement. 

Ashton called on Israel to "reverse" its decision to build 1,100 new housing units in Gilo.

The government, however, has insisted that construction in the Jewish neighborhoods of Gilo is standard Israeli policy, and that Gilo is not a settlement nor should construction there be considered settlement development.

The statement called on the PA to enter negotiations without delay.

A fellow blogger, Elder of Ziyon, confirms this tactic by showing multiple maps and pictures of Gilo in relation to the Green Line and Arab villages, and shows that Gilo isn't a settlement but rather a neighborhood on area that would be kept as Israel in any peace agreement.

But once again, the Palestinians must always seek an excuse as to why they can't enter into negotiations.

"It's Israel's fault, they want to actually negotiate, instead of giving up everything in preconditions! This isn't something we will accept!"

"It's Israel's fault, they're building homes for residents of Israel in areas that would remain Israel in any peace agreement!"

"It's Israel's fault for building settlements! The settlements are the obstacle to peace! That's why terrorism against Zionists started in the 1920's, and the 1948 and 1967 war, and many acts of terrorism, took place before 1967 - before any settlements!"

"It's Israel's fault for refusing to give into our lunatic demands that Israel commits suicide! Israel doesn't want to negotiate!"

"Israel is the obstacle to peace! Our incitement of hatred on Palestinians T.V., newspapers, indoctrination of youth, declaring all of Israel as "occupied," refusal to accept any peace talks - including the very generous Olmert offer in 2008 -, training our children to become terrorists, throwing stones at Israelis which led to the death of Asher Palmer and his infant son, have nothing at all to do with the failure to establish peace!"

Speaking of Danny Ayalon here, check out his excellent video, "The Truth about the West Bank," to learn more about the West Bank and the settlements.