Good news - Israel publicly trashes Kerry's peace mission

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

http://972mag.com/good-news-israel-publicly-trashes-kerrys-peace-mission/69018/

In remarks to Haaretz today, ‘senior Israeli official’ shows Netanyahu to be the rejectionist, making it easier for Abbas to take ‘unilateral’ steps soon.

Well, that was quick. No sooner does John Kerry wind up his first trip to Israel-Palestine to restart the peace process than the Netanyahu government publicly trashes his plans. Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Barak Ravid reported today that a “senior Israeli official” said Kerry asked Netanyahu to free prisoners, transfer weapons to the Palestinian Authority and give up control of certain parts of the West Bank for the sake of Palestinian economic projects. Netanyahu, however, won’t consider any of these “confidence-building measures” until after peace talks get underway, said the official.
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The ball is now in Kerry’s court. I don’t see him going to war with Netanyahu – the Obama administration clearly doesn’t have the guts for that – nor do I think he’ll try too hard to pressure Abbas to agree to Netanyahu’s terms – Abbas is not going to commit suicide. Kerry will probably try to get the two sides to meet somewhere in the middle, which I don’t believe will happen because they’re on two different planets politically – the Palestinians want independence and Israel doesn’t want to give it to them – so this current U.S. attempt at Middle East peacemaking will fade to nothing like so many before it.

But by blowing off Kerry’s mission so brazenly, Israel, presumably, has pissed off the Americans – not enough, unfortunately, for them to sanction this country, but maybe, just maybe, enough for them to let Israel suffer the consequences of its policies. Today’s statement of Israeli rejectionism is good news, a possible small step in the right direction: it makes it easier for Abbas to follow through on his promise to take the occupation to the International Criminal Court and proceed with other “unilateral” steps unless Kerry’s efforts deliver meaningful results within three months, which ain’t gonna happen. As long as the right wing is in power here, nobody’s going to sweet talk Israel into giving up the occupation; this can only be done by uncompromising, adversarial means that magnify Israel’s crime against the Palestinians before the world, that threaten Israel with pariahhood – and only the Palestinians can do that, because nobody else cares enough. Hopefully, then, the senior Israel official quoted in Haaretz today brought the occupation one step closer to The Hague.

[Jefferson23]

1. No surprise, unfortunately. n/t

[azurnoir]

2. I'm not all too sure it's good news

but it is not unexpected either

[delrem]

3. It isn't good news.

There's an uncanny resemblance between how Mitch McConnell and John Boehner play the game, and how Benjamin Netanyahu is playing it. These guys are absolutists, or fronts for absolutist doctrines (Netanyahu, at any rate, is the real thing...), and they're confident that they can play any attempt to compromise or have a meeting of minds with their interests as weakness and as a betrayal of "the left".

I'm quite sure that according as their strategy this tactic puts Dems in a "lose/lose" situation.

I'm not going to say much more because what I want to say is "meta" to I/P, and the "meta" stuff doesn't matter. What is important is that in 2014, and in *every* election year, progressives don't despair and they focus on getting out the vote and electing progressives, and if this means primarying someone who isn't acting in their interests, they bloody well do it. Because the numbers are on the people's side on just about every progressive battle. Don't give up.