{"id":29316,"date":"2013-07-21T13:16:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T09:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=29316"},"modified":"2013-07-21T13:16:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T09:16:29","slug":"lets-talk-about-talking-and-just-keep-on-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/middle-east-politics-analysis\/lets-talk-about-talking-and-just-keep-on-building\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Let’s Talk About Talking. And Just Keep on Building’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

Was I wrong yesterday when I claimed that John Kerry\u2019s peace process mission was a failure?\u00a0 Just he because Kerry wrangled a last minute agreement<\/a> from Israel and the Palestinians to come to Washington to talk about talking \u2013 over six months no less \u2013 doesn\u2019t place the peace process in Kerry\u2019s win column.\u00a0 It also doesn\u2019t forfeit my claim that both Kerry and President Obama have become the latest of America\u2019s lame ducks in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

I hope I\u2019m wrong.\u00a0 I doubt it.<\/p>\n

Why did Israel agree to talks?\u00a0 Some believe that the drumbeat commentary of the coming end of the Two State option forced Israel\u2019s hand.\u00a0 Others think that the new European Union guidelines separating Israel and its occupation, the BDS movement and the growing international sense that Israel had gone too far was the catalyst.\u00a0 In other words, Israel had to do something.\u00a0 Why not look ready for peace and at the same time exhaust yet another American administration by agreeing to talk \u2013 about talking.<\/p>\n

Since the last time there was direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians was several years ago, after this latest go another several years will elapse.\u00a0 Buying time to further consolidate the occupation is a win for Israel.\u00a0 Why not agree to talk \u2013 about talking – and further consolidate the occupation at the same time?<\/p>\n

Beside the Middle East is in turmoil.\u00a0 By agreeing to talk \u2013 about talking \u2013 the spotlight on Israel is diverted.\u00a0 Over the next year, Syria and Egypt will be the focal point.\u00a0 Better to be perceived as cooperative rather than intransigent.<\/p>\n

Why did the Palestinians agree to talks?\u00a0 With the region in turmoil, attention has been diverted from Palestinians, too.\u00a0 Syria has replaced Palestine as the center of regional squabbling and the devolution of Egypt\u2019s political and economic life is foreboding.\u00a0 Gulf money is flowing everywhere but Palestine. The region\u2019s militaries and oligarchs want Israel in on their security guarantees.<\/p>\n

Palestinians are increasingly isolated.\u00a0 They exist as negative symbolic markers without power.\u00a0 The instability Palestinians caused in the past paid dividends for Middle East powerbrokers. Palestinian usefulness is at an ebb.\u00a0 For some rulers in the region this is a time where Palestinians and dissenters in general can be disciplined once and for all.<\/p>\n

The landswaps deal that the Arab League signed onto said it all.\u00a0 For those in power in the Middle East, the Palestinian issue has been resolved in favor of Israel.<\/p>\n

So it seems that the Palestinian agreement to talk had little to do with Israel as a partner for peace.\u00a0 While this may sound preposterous at first, think what Palestinians might get from Israel for talking \u2013 about talking.<\/p>\n

A real Palestinian state, with the settlements dismantled, the freedom to control their own internal affairs and borders, with their own military and ability to conduct a foreign policy?\u00a0 No one on the Palestinian side believes that any of these possibilities are seriously on the table.<\/p>\n

In the announcement of the Washington meetings, Kerry stressed once again the economic incentives that would flow to Palestine \u2013 a theme he has harped on since his first trip to the region as Secretary of State.\u00a0 Remember Kerry\u2019s four-billion- dollar plan to transform the Palestinian economy?\u00a0 Now he\u2019s talking about reducing unemployment in the West Bank.\u00a0 To stress economic benefits when everyone one knows the plight of the Palestinians is about occupation rather than economics means that Palestinians are looking toward the United States rather than Israel.<\/p>\n

All of this raises a serious question.\u00a0 What is the agreement to talk \u2013 about talking \u2013 really about?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MARC ELLIS, MONDOWEISS: Don’t expect anything of substance from the proposed meetings between Israeli and Palestinian ‘negotiators’. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":29318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[154,82,171,483,60,482],"tags":[1209,17663,18311,16809,16505,3972,191,16635,1747,16734,18286,16614,2020,16497],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29316"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29316"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29321,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29316\/revisions\/29321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}