Palestinians expected to leave direct talks

[oberliner]

The Palestinian leadership plans to meet on Saturday and is expected to officially decide to end negotiations with Israel if the renewed West Bank settlement construction is not halted.

Those expected to attend the meeting Saturday include representatives of the PLO workers committee, the Fatah central committee, and the heads of other political parties.

After making a decision, the Palestinian leadership is expected to announce that the final decision of whether to leave the talks will be made by the Arab League, who are planning to discuss the issue this coming Monday.

The head of the Palestinian negotiation team, Saeb Erekat, said on Wednesday that "there are no half-way solutions on the settlements issue."

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-expected-to-leave-direct-talks-1.316446

[Violet_Crumble]

1. If Israel was interested in peace, it would stop the settlement construction...

I doubt the current Isreali govt is the slightest bit interested in any peace that extends beyond stopping any rockets being fired from Gaza and a peaceful continution to settlement construction in the West Bank. Nutty is pandering to the even more extreme members of his coalition, and I think the best thing would be for new elections to be called and hopefully the extremist minor parties would not hold any power in a new govt.

[oberliner]

3. Netanyahu's coalition would collapse if he did that

There is no way he would be able to hold his coalition together if he stopped the settlement construction.

Remember that the party that won the most seats in the last election is not even in the current government and was unable to form a coalition.

Can you tell me what combination of political parties you would like to see form the next Israeli government coalition?

[azurnoir]

4. Exactly and on that thought

does Netanyahu actually have the "political capital" to make good on any agreement he might reach with the Palestinians? Can he actually "evacuate" the settlements, the West Bank settlers will not go as "quietly" as the Gaza settlers did. The Palestinians leaving may be the best thing to happen for Netanyahu's political future and quite possibly Israel's immediate future, however this situation will only worsen with time
Thinking about this last I had a thought a 3 state "solution" with settlers as their own state now understand this not serious but in a way the situation exists already

[aranthus]

5. And Abbas' would collapse if he stayed with the talks in the face of settlement construction.

Therein lies the impasse.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. That's the point. It should collapse...

Hopefully a combination of parties more to the Left would form government...

[oberliner]

7. Which parties are you speaking of?

Can you give me an example of a possible combination of parties more to the Left that you would like to see form the next Israeli government?

[Violet_Crumble]

8. Any of the more LW ones...

I don't know what combination that might be...

btw, while yr here, do you mind answering the question I asked you back in the thread about Jonathon Pollard? I can give you a link if you need it...

[oberliner]

9. I don't know what parties you would consider LW - for instance, does Kadima count?

Does Labor?

If you aren't including those parties then I do not see what you could possibly be talking about as there is no combination of LW parties that could come anywhere close to forming a governing coalition.

If you do include Kadima and Labor, I would note that Kadima had the most seats in the last election and was still unable to form a governing coalition.

If you include Labor but not Kadima, there is no other left wing party that won more than 3 percent of the vote and Labor barely received 10 percent.

I think that the reason you "don't know what combination that might be" is because there is no such combination possible (unless you consider Kadima to be left wing which I don't think you do).

Also, I did answer your question in the Pollard thread.

[Violet_Crumble]

10. I've talked about what I consider to be more LW parties many times in this forum...

Unless you don't bother reading my posts, I don't see how you couldn't know. I do consider Kadima to be one of the more LW parties (that's in the perspective of Israeli politics), btw, so you think wrong with my reasoning...

[oberliner]

11. Great - then I totally agree with you

In fact, I am still annoyed that Kadima wasn't able to form a government in the first place - especially considering they won the majority of seats!

[Donald Ian Rankin]

14. How possible are you asking?

If we're talking about in an ideal world, I'd like to see Meretz take power, or conceivably Hadash.

If we're talking about the current knesset, there's no sane option - hardline pro-occupation, anti-peace parties control either 93 or 106 of the seats, depending on whether or not you class Labour under Barak as pro-occupation - my impression is that there are still a fair number of decent people left in the Labour party, but that Barak is moving it steadily further right, but I may be wrong on either of those claims.

And I suspect that elections today would move the knesset even further right.



As I've said many times before, the only possible hope for peace would be pressure on Israel from the outside - specifically form the US. There is no hope for peace coming consensually from within Israel. Of course, there's no hope of the US putting pressure on Israel either...

[azurnoir]

12. That's quite a big hope

seeing as how Israel seems to have been swaying ever more rightward, if the talks collapse now IMO it will only serve to save Netanyahu from ever having to "put his money where his mouth is", he walks away looking like the hero whom tried my government (again IMO the only one that really matter to Israel, opinion wise)will pronounce that it's all the Palestinians fault and that will be that on the other hand if the Palestinians stay then Israel has to prove itself capable of actually implementing a peace deal

[oberliner]

13. I agree

Your analysis is spot on here.

[parkia00]

2. Bread Crumbs

Imagine going to a restaurant and you are only offered bread crumbs for appetizer, main course and dessert. And the restaurant owner and their supporters tirades you for leaving the table. A peace treaty is when two or more sides come together and decide what they can give up for something more important. Not for them but for the future generations. Obviously Israel has deemed the settlements as being more important.

[polly7]

15. Spot on.

Why anyone expects Palestinians to accept scraps while watching the ongoing settlements, is beyond me. No dought decades of 'peace' hypocrisy and getting away with UN violations has given Israeli leaders the impression Palestinians are irrelevant in the whole process and how dare they walk away ........ but really, who wouldn't?