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Mideast Game Continues

(Commentary) Jonathan S. Tobin - PA President Mahmoud Abbas is saying that he will continue to participate in the peace talks that have been orchestrated by the Obama administration. Though the Palestinians have been threatening to walk out if Israel doesn't extend a freeze on all settlement-building in the West Bank, it appears that the parties are trying to weasel their way out of this impasse. While the continued talking will, no doubt, be heralded by the Americans as proof that the talks have a good chance of succeeding and that their goal of a Palestinian state and genuine peace within a year will be achieved, realists know that it means nothing of the kind. Netanyahu is aware of the fact that if the Palestinians ever actually accepted a state in almost all the West Bank with a share of Jerusalem in exchange for a complete end to the conflict with no right of return for refugees, the Israeli people would almost certainly accept this offer - whether it was wise policy or not. But he also knows that Abbas cannot possibly accept this deal, for the same reasons he rejected such an offer in 2008, when Ehud Olmert put it on the table in the wake of the 2007 Annapolis Summit, not to mention Yasir Arafat's similar refusal of such a deal at Camp David in 2000: the rejectionist culture of Palestinian politics and Hamas won't allow it. The majority of Palestinians and Israelis understand that what is going on is an elaborate farce being staged for the benefit of Obama and Hillary Clinton rather than constituting a genuine chance for peace.
2010-09-17 09:08:58
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