The Illusion Of The Peaces Talks And The Settlement Freeze

When George Will writes today that in the Mideast, the peace process is only a mirage, he does not mean a benign one. Quite the opposite.

In general, it is not a good thing to fool oneself--and that goes double in the Middle East, where an issue that Obama insisted on highlighting has been exploited by the Arabs into a sticking point that may well become the excuse Abbas will use to foil what Obama sees as an opportunity for a foreign policy success:

The biggest threat to peace might be the peace process -- or, more precisely, the illusion that there is one. The mirage becomes the reason for maintaining its imaginary "momentum" by extorting concessions from Israel, the only party susceptible to U.S. pressure. Israel is, however, decreasingly susceptible.
In one month, history will recycle when the partial 10-month moratorium on Israeli construction on the West Bank expires. Resumption of construction -- even here, in the capital, which was not included in the moratorium -- will be denounced by a fiction, "the international community," as a threat to another fiction, "the peace process."

This, even though no Israeli government of any political hue has ever endorsed a ban on construction in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem, where about 40 percent of the capital's Jewish population lives. Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon, who says "the War of Independence has not ended" 62 years after 1948, says of an extension of the moratorium: "The prime minister is opposed to it. He said that clearly. The decision was for 10 months. [On] Sept. 27, we are immediately going to return" to construction and "Jerusalem is outside the discussion."

Predictably, Palestinian officials are demanding that the moratorium be extended as the price of their willingness to continue direct talks with Israel -- which begin Sept. 2 -- beyond Sept. 27. If this demand succeeds, history will remain cyclical: The "peace process" will be sustained by rewarding the Palestinian tactic of making the mere fact of negotiations contingent on Israeli concessions concerning matters that should be settled by negotiations.

Read the whole thing.

For its part, it is about time Israel start demanding some things--like forcing the PA to stop incitements of hate against Israel, that the PA cease calls for boycotts and insisting on measures against corruption in the PA.

Abbas has proved himself very adept at making demands while doing nothing in return.
It is time for Israel to start making demands in return.

If the peace process cannot withstand that, then it will be revealed to be a very weak illusion indeed.

Hat tip: Soccer Dad

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Hamas and Operation Cast Lead.