Just a day after the Israeli cabinet passed a resolution requiring all new non-Jewish citizens to swear fealty to Israel’s status as a “Jewish state,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu carried the ball further downfield, demanding that the Palestinian Authority do so as well, as a condition for the 60 day construction freeze in the occupied West Bank.
Direct peace talks came to a halt last month when Israel allowed a settlement freeze to expire. The 60 day extension was supposed to be predicated on massive pledges from the US, including pledges to support Israel’s demands to retain eternal control over the borders of any Palestinian state and promises to use their UN Security Council veto whenever Israel saw fit.
Yet it appears this is no longer enough and the Netanyahu government wants the Palestinian Authority to swear their own support to Israel’s designs on being a “Jewish state,” a term which has extremely negative connotations for Israel’s religious minorities, which make up 20 percent of the country.
The Palestinians, unsurprisingly, have rejected the demand, but it again leaves the peace talks in limbo and again leaves the Netanyahu government claiming that it is all the Palestinians’ fault. A 60 day freeze would not have halted any real construction but would have prevented Israel from issuing new building permits. Since Israel has issued hundreds of such permits in the past two weeks the 60 days would have been purely symbolic. Symbolism, however, doesn’t come cheap in the world of diplomacy, and the US may have to figure out if there is anything else they can pledge to Israel to try to rent another 60 days of talks. Given the reported size of their last offer it is unclear if there is anything left to offer, however.
No one should be surprised by this. People need to recognize reality on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Both sides claim the entirety of Palestine for their own people only. There will never be a negotiated peace (at least not one that holds), and anyone who talks about a "Peace Process" is either delusional or simply playing a cynical political game.
If it wasn't for the politics of petroleum, the Palestinians would have already lost and been ejected from Palestine. Many decades from now, petroleum supplies will run down to the point that they become irrelevant, and if the Israeli Jews can hold out until then, they will eject the Palestinians and end the conflict.
How about the UN just pull a 1947 maneuver and carve a de facto Palestinian state out of Israel, regardless of who is living there, or for how long they've been there. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, and Israel (as a Jewish state) shouldn't complain about it since, after all, Judaism teaches goodwill and peaceful cohabitation with others, right?
The Arabs have from the start been emphatic that Israel honors all ALL aspects of it self imposed obligations UN242 before any recognition of the 1967 illegal borders
To extend the moratorium on the that the Palestinians recognize the illegal annexation of Arab land well outside the unilaterally declared Jewish State (UN181) as stipulated in Israel Declaration of Independence.
Pull the other leg Bibi that one has bells on.
It is Illegal to build on occupied land,starve murder,all the vile actions the israelis have and continue to inflict on the palestinian people.No one can challenge the validity of who are the true inhabitants of that land Balfour knew it so does america but continue their deadly proscriptions and for how long. It is enevitable that israel will not last.