The negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are falling apart, with the Palestinians moving to join more than a dozen United Nations’ groups—thereby backing out of previous agreements to not seek statehood recognition outside of the peace talks. The New York Times reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed the membership applications on television, although the Palestinians had not yet submitted their applications as of early Wednesday.
The good news for Israel, which was pointed out by US officials in The New York Times article, is that the Palestinians did not move to join the International Criminal Court—which could be used to harass and even threaten Israel with unfounded criminal lawsuits. Meanwhile, Abbas has plenty of support to abandon the talks—from a terror group.
Hamas, which has opposed the peace talks from the beginning, called the negotiations a “travesty,” according to the Ma’an News Agency. A spokesman for Hamas went on to say that continuing the negotiations would be the beginning of the end for the “Palestinian cause.”
Hamas is well known for claiming all the territory buy clonazepam online uk from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea—which leaves no room for Israel.
The UN move by Abbas comes as The New York Times reported that the Americans were trying to come up with a new arrangement that would extend the peace talks beyond an April 29 deadline.
While Abbas’ jumpstarting of the UN groups’ application process was considered to be nothing more than a form of hard ball negotiations by the US, according to The New York Times, it nonetheless could be the beginning of the end for this round of talks.
Regardless of the futility or foolishness of trying to reach a deal between the sides—Israel surrendering land has never bought peace with the Palestinians—it nonetheless is startling that Abbas would just walk away from even trying to reach a deal. It certainly calls into questions the motives of a man who has opposed Israel politically.
If Abbas abandons negotiations with Israel to try unilateral actions, at least he’ll have company. Terrorists don’t want peace with Israel either.
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, April 2, 2014)