Is Israel Being Set Up To Take The Fall (Again)?

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The Washington Post notes that Clinton wraps up Israeli, Palestinian talks - for now:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday wrapped up three days of intense Middle East diplomacy that produced good atmospherics but no sign that an impasse over Israeli settlement construction has been resolved.

"We all know that there is no alternative to peace other than negotiating peace, so we have no alternative but to continue peace efforts," Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said before meeting with the chief U.S. diplomat in the West Bank city of Ramallah.


But Abbas gave little indication that he was willing to keep talks going after a partial moratorium on Israeli settlement construction expires Sept. 30.

Yeah, that must have been some show--but now what? Is the stage being set to admit the talks were a failure, and then blame the whole thing on Netanyahu?

On Wednesday evening, Netanyahu told Abbas during talks at his residence in Jerusalem that the moratorium would not be extended, Israeli media reported. The prime minister’s office repeated that position in a statement Thursday.

But Netanyahu has indicated that some restrictions on construction will be applied, and U.S. officials are hoping that the momentum of the past few days will convince the Palestinians to keep talking, even if the settlement freeze is not extended in full.

The point is that Mahmoud "We all know that there is no alternative to peace other than negotiating peace" Abbas had to be dragged to the negotiating yelling and screaming in the first place. If a partial restriction on construction--which will not go down well in Israel--is not enough for Abbas, then the responsibility is Abbas's, not Netanyahu's.

After all, unlike Abbas, whose term as president of the PA ran out nearly 2 years ago with no new elections planned--Netanyahu is an actual elected leader with a country that he represents and is responsible to. Besides, it is not Bibi's responsibility to hold Abbas's hand (let alone keep giving him treats) if Abbas wants to go home.

At some point the critics who jump on command to blame Israel for the failure of peace talks may notice that the corrupt and incompetent Abbas never even got the OK from his own party to attend the talks in the first place.

But don't expect them to come to that realization any time soon. The media still has not noticed that incitement of Israel continues in the West Bank unabated.

Jennifer Rubin predicts:

If we’re lucky, the talks will go on “hiatus” so “important work can be done at staff levels.” Let’s hope some face-saver like that can be worked out. The most likely alternative, however, is another intifada.

And yes, Israel will be blamed for that too.

Technorati Tag: Mideast Peace Talks.