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Why Has the Peace Process Stopped?

[Fox News] Charles Krauthammer - The whole delay in the peace process is a self-inflicted wound. For over a year, the previous prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, had been negotiating with the head of the Palestinians and made an astonishingly generous offer in December of '08, which the Palestinians refused, as they always refuse. Instead of trying to get the Palestinians to moderate, the U.S. tried to make an issue of settlements, which had been in consensus. The U.S. and Israelis had agreed: No new settlements, no new expansion of territory in settlements. The Palestinians had accepted that, had never refused negotiations for anything else. But then the U.S. adds a condition of no thickening of settlements, i.e., you don't construct a kindergarten if children are born, which the Israelis have rejected. And all of a sudden the Palestinians and Arabs have said no negotiations until Israel jumps through this higher hoop. So the Arabs and Palestinians have said we are not going to move. We're going to let the U.S. extract unilateral concessions out of the Israelis, and that is why the process has stopped.
2009-09-02 08:00:00
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