Israel-Palestine Peace Talks: All Over But the Shouting

No Formal Declaration, But Talks Seem Finished

The Obama Administration continues to scramble around trying to find a last-second solution, while criticizing Israeli and Palestinian officials for “jeopardizing” the talks. It all seems academic at this point, however.

There’s been no formal declaration to that effect, and technically the schedule for the current round of talks to end is a few weeks out, but all indications are that there won’t be any more negotiations.

Israel reneged on a prisoner release scheduled for Saturday, and today retroactively blamed it on the PA signing 15 UN conventions, which happened three days later. Either way, they insist the release won’t happen at all.

The PA, likewise, insist they aren’t going to rescind those signatures, and don’t seem to even be considering a scenario where they return to the talks without the prisoners getting released.

Israel’s Jewish Home faction is apparently at the center of the prisoner dispute, and has threatened to withdraw from the coalition over prisoner releases in recent talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.