Abbas Turns Down Israeli Settlement Freeze

I can’t allow myself to make even one concession.
Abbas, Israel's peace partner

The difference between compromise and surrender is that in a surrender, only one side compromises.

So far, we have seen Netanyahu willing to extend the settlement freeze in exchange for the release of Jonathan Pollard and then in return for the recognition of the Bush letter and it's implications.

But those were offers were directed towards Obama--now Netanyahu has made an offer directly to Abbas:

The spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's offer to extend the settlement freeze in the territories for the PA's recognition of Israel as the national state of the Jewish people.

"The topic of the Jewishness of the state is not connected at all to the issue [of the building freeze]," said the spokesman.[emphasis added]

While it is true that one has nothing to do with the other, neither is there really any reason why they should have to be.

The bottom line is that Netanyahu is going all out to prove that he is willing to negotiate. When the talks fail, Netanyahu will be able to point to the offers he has made in order to keep the talks going. As a matter of fact, Bibi is the one who has consistently expressed a willingness to sit down and talk.

Abbas, on the other hand, will have nothing to show to indicate that he had any interest in peace--not to mention the fact that he did everything he could to avoid attending the peace talks.

In the end, of course, it will not matte much. Abbas will blame Netanyahu for the failure of the talks because he refused to extend the settlement freeze--and the world will nod in agreement.

It will not matter that a settlement freeze was never before used as a precondition to negotiating.
Nor will it matter that Bibi offered the freeze on his own to get the talks going.
No one will remember or care that even then it took months for Abbas to respond and come to the table.

As this latest offer by Netanyahu proves, a settlement freeze has become a demand, and rather than negotiate for it by offering something in return, Abbas is demanding the settlement freeze as a unilateral concession.

This is nothing more than an inside look at what these peace talks are to Abbas--an opportunity to make the demands that he originally expected Obama to make for him on his behalf.

Netanyahu couches his suggestion to Abbas in a somewhat ironic way:

He said that Palestinian recognition would be an important "confidence building measure" and would send an important positive message to the Israeli people of Palestinian intentions.

Abbas's failure to even consider recognition sends a message too.

Technorati Tag: Israeli Settlement Freeze and Mideast Peace Talks.