Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have reportedly agreed on a nine-month timeline for the current round of peace talks, with an eye toward final-status negotiations at some point within it.
The nine month span doesn’t amount to a “deadline,” according to the US State Department, but rather a pledge for both sides to keep plugging away for at least that long, meaning that barring another setback, the talks would go through the end of next April.
Though the talks are being presented as starting from scratch, with extremely preliminary negotiations taking place today, the issues have been discussed for decades by many of the leaders on both sides, and the same stumbling blocks seem liable to crop up this time.
The disputes will continue to center around Israeli settlements primarily, and the question of setting actual, real borders for a Palestinian state. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long spurned calls to propose final borders, seeking to get the Palestinians to agree to nominal statehood in a nebulous portion of the West Bank, which would constantly continue to shift as new settlements are created.
US officials are trumpeting the talks as a big deal, and an accomplishment for Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though both seem to be laying the groundwork for the talks’ eventual collapse before they even begin, hoping to see the other side blamed for the inevitable failure and trying to squeeze whatever political benefit they can out of the negotiations in the interim.
Of course these negotiations will go nowhere, just like every time. The Israelis will propose something absurdly unfair or a group of "Arabs" will attack Israel during the negotiations, and Israel will throw up its hands and say "See, these people don't want peace! We tried!|"
I'm not going to spend much time on the fact that Martin Indyk is Jewish and a Zionist. There goes any US impartiality. The fact that Netanyahu is doing just the opposite of everything he has ever written or said does not bode well. Either this is just another cruel attempt to subjugate the Palestinians as a security measure and a way to pro long the occupation or the Palestinians will be forced into a bad deal that no self respecting Palestinian can accept. Finally, the timing seems to coincide with a concerted effort to undermine Islamic movements in Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Jordan and elsewhere. The US/Israeli western backed push to stop the tide of Islamic identity in the Middle East is desperate for a way to maintain the status quo.
Why do I get this ringing in my head, Johnathan Pollard, Johnathan Pollard. Bibi was demanding that the US free Pollard in exchange for palistinians prisoner now this is about to take place along with peace talks makes you wonder what the hell is going on.
These "talks" are pure Kabuki…Israel has no intention of allowing Palestine to physically exist. Israel has not yet completed its theft of land allocated to the Palestinians so as pointed out above, the talks will fail, the Israelis will blame the PA and things will continue as they are now with Israel building more settlements on land they do not own. And the USG will stand faithfully behind Bibi (with a check for more weapons.)
Imagine the outrage if Obama/Kerry had designeated an American of Palestinian descent to manage the talks instead of an American-Jew. The Israelis would have immediately walked away from the table. All theater…
You are right.
I wonder what kind of bastard child will come out of this after 9 months
I read somewhere – short-term memory is failing, again – the author contending that the 9 month was to guarantee that the Palestinians would miss the opportunity to bring up Palestinian Statehood at the UN General this fall – them being involved in the "talks" and all. I'm guessing that the charade will fail before the General Assembly and the Palestinians will ask for Statehood – and the Israelis will go postal. But, that's just this old Curmudgeon's opinion…