IMEMC News | – –
The U.S. delegation led by Kushner expressed openness to the two-state solution while refusing to commit to the 1967 borders, according to diplomatic sources who spoke to international Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat.
A U.S. delegation headed by President Trump’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, this week, that “stopping settlement construction is impossible because it will cause the collapse of the Netanyahu government.”
The U.S. delegation, including envoy Jason Greenblatt and Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategy Dina Powell, met with Abbas on Thursday during their regional trip, which aimed at kick starting a new round of peace negotiations.
According to the report, the delegation expressed openness to the two-state solution while refusing to divide the borders of these countries within the 1967 borders, a determination which the delegation said should be left to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Abbas, who demanded that the United States explicitly state that the purpose of the negotiations is to reach a two-state solution along the 1967 lines, also asked the delegation to ensure economic freedom for the Palestinian Authority in Area C, which includes 60 percent of the total Palestinian territory.
He requested unrestricted exports and imports, and ask to amend the Paris Protocol agreement which defines the economic relationship between Israel and the PA, PNN reports.
Via IMEMC
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Related video added by Juan Cole:
Why am I not surprised? Perhaps a neutral negotiator would be a better choice for the job?
So much for any chance of a peace…
Wasn’t very likely anyhow, what with the amateurs trying to work it out.
If only the remaining Palestinians would accept their own slow inevitable destruction for the profits of Israeli land speculators/real estate development… seriously, put one self in their shoes. Would one accept an arbitration from the hired gun of the opposing side, or the world court of public opinion? Add in the calculated deconstruction, at Russian behest, of the US State Dept are the Israelis pleased with this deal?
So, it’s only the continuance of the Netanyahu government that’s holding things up. One might have suspected that but it’s nice to have it confirmed from so elevated a source. Regime change anyone?
So Netanyahu’s govt would fall if the US demanded that settlement construction stopped?
OK. Then…. let it fall.
And when the next govt comes in and says that it will also collapse if the US repeated that demand then…. repeat the demand and watch it collapse.
This will probably never enter Kushner’s narrow mind, but the Israelis actually Need To Know That Settlement Construction Comes At A Cost, and what more costly endeavour for a politician than to loose his cushy seat at the top of the table.
Make the demand, force the govt to collapse, then repeat as many times as necessary until it gets through to the Israelis that settlement construction is not sustainable.
Pretty simple, really.
The Israelis have painted themselves into a corner with no viable solution.
While many Israelis wish that the non-Jews west of the Jordan river would just “magically” disappear overnight, that is just not going to happen, so Israelis are going to have to find a “reasonable” solution.
BUT that is going to be extremely painful for Israelis.
Some possible solutions:
– Israel pays hundreds of thousands of dollars to each non-Jew to get them to “self deport” to some other place on earth. There are two big roadblocks to this . . . (1) Israel does not have sufficient wealth to do this and USA taxpayers would scalp any USA politician that tried to help and (2) no country on earth is willing to take millions of refugees even if they are not as poor as most refugees. This is especially true with technology eliminating as much as 75% of the jobs in some countries. No country wants to displace their own citizens from jobs and replace them with refugees. But if the refugees can’t get jobs they will be a revolution waiting to happen.
– Israel “rounds up the usual suspects” and simply forcibly drives them from Israel. Even with trump cheering them on, this will collapse very quickly since Israel would quickly find that its economy would tank due to severe economic pressure and no country on earth will allow the refugees.
– Basically, Israel is stuck with millions of non-Jewish humans living west of the Jordan river that will never go away.
– Israel no longer has the option of giving up lots of land, water and cash (to compensate for past Israeli mistreatment). Israel has no capability of removing the settlers and clearing enough hectares of usable, contiguous land to create the country of Palestine. “Separation” is no longer possible, which why the USA insistence on separation is pure BS and just a placeholder to prevent an immediate crisis (push the ugly problem onto the next USA and Israeli governments).
– So Israel can not “remove” the problem by making Israel “pure” Jewish west of the Jordan river, nor can Israel create a small non-Jewish state west of Jordan river.
– Realistically Israel has only one option left – integrate the Jewish and non-Jewish humans west of the Jordan river into a single multi-cultural society, which will be extremely painful for Israelis.
– If Israel does not integrate their society, then the current non-Jewish minority (soon to be a slight majority) will become more angry and violent and Israel will have a defacto low level war with lots of humans dying on both sides. Over time this will drive those with sufficient wealth and/or skills to move to other places on earth where living conditions are better (that is the people will choose to not be living in a long term combat zone). This will hollow out the Israel economy and the country could end up collapsing economically.
Given the mythic rhetoric that Israelis have used for almost 100 years, I do not see any peaceful resolution to the situation Israelis have created.
The hubris (pride) is extreme in Israel.
Who knew peace in Israel/Palestine could be so hard?
Who knew health care could be so hard?
Who knew Abraham Lincoln was a Republican?