fairly in the recent Mideast peace talks?

Send this clipping to somebody

Transcribed from the clipping

Did the Obama Administration treat Israel fairly in the recent Mideast peace talks? Administration was scrupulously even-handed By JOHN B. QUIGLEY PRO the Gaza administration, head- CÓLUMBUS, Ohio - It was a nice try. Last July, Secretary of State John Kerry convinced the israelis and Palestinians to negotiate for a period of nine months.

During that time, Kerry cajoled and wheedled to get to a peace treaty. Kerry kept both sides on board, almost to the very end, which came at the end of April. There were some unex- pected moments. One of Israell Prime Minister Benjamin Ne- ed by the Hamas organization, is in the picture.

Hamas won a Palestinian election a few years ago, but it is on the U.S. list of terrorist organizations. So Ker- ry might have followed Netan- yahu's lead and said that with Hamas in, peace was off the table. To his credit, he did not. He did not depict it as ending the possibility of peace talks.

Then there was the move made Dy talesuse un mid April to sign on to some fifteen Palestine recognize Israel as a Jewish state. Kerry initially backed Ne- tanyahu, viewing the demand as verblage without great significance.

But the Palestin- san negotiators explained to Kerry that Netanyahu's ulterior motive was to scuttle the pos sibility of a repatriation of the Palestine Arabs displaced from Israel in 1948, and perhaps to force out the Palestine Arabs 1948. Kerry to his credit lipped on the issue.

In March, Kerry told Israel that the United Na- tions had already accepted it as a Jewish state in 1948. Kerry also reacted with a certain equanimity when, just days ago, the West Bank and Gaza administrations, which have been at each other's throats, announced that they would form a joint government for International treaties. Israel cried foul.

Netanyahu said that Palestine had agreed not to join international organizations during the nine months of ne gotiations. But Palestine was acting in response to Israel's own failure to release a group of Palestin- • a release to which Israel had agreed as part of the negotiation process. and, said Kerry, quite correctly. Palestine was not joining orga- nizations.

The fifteen treaties did not involve organizations. With the United States traditionally on Israel's side in the conflict with Palestine, these stances by Kerry shocked Netanyahu and sent Ü.S. stock upwards in the Arab world. Kerry had been expected to back Netanyahu on everything. He did not.

He even suggested, as the negotiation deadline came and went, that Israel Netanyahu reacted by say- ing he will never negotiate if apartheid state by keeping con- trol over the Palestinians but CLASSIC DOONESBURY (1973) WHATS THE OBLEM?I HAVENT YOU PEOPLE EVEN ED AT THE without their participation in the political process. But in the end it was not enough.

There was an elephant in the room all along and Kerry never dealt with it. Israel kept transferring more of its citizens into settlements in Pal- estine's West Bank, solidifying its grip on the very land that is supposed to wind up under Palestinian control. During the nine months. the US. continued to give Israel huge sums in aid, money it uses to bulld settlements.

Since the "peace process" started in the mid-1990s, we have vetoed UN Security Council actions that were directed at stopping the settlements. The Palestinians had been reluctant to negotiate for nine months without a freeze on settlements.

They gave in to Kerry on that point, only to find that upon the expiration of the nine months, they are now worse off, with more Israelis living on their land. The nego- tiations set peace back, rather than advance it. As Kerry doubtless knew, Netanyahu was not serious about a peace agreement from the start.

He has always op posed negotiations, preferring instead to take Palestine terri- tory by accretion. Kerry's nine- month gambit may have been an effort at peace, but the real- ity of it was collusion in Israel's efforts to block peace. • John &. Quigley is a professor of Law at The Ohio State University and the author of more than a dozen critically acclaimed books on law.

VISITATION! One-sided tactics showed contempt for Israel y LAWRENCE J. HAAS CON WASHINGTON, D.C. - Recent Israeli-Palestin- ian peace talks raised ques- mons as to why wastinkion Invested so much in such a misbegotten venture, but they brought one salutary result - they laid bare the Obama Administration's hostility to the Jewish state.

Evidence of anti-Israel one-sidedness mounted as the talks predictably went nowhere and President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry blamed Israck in kenera and ses settlement polley in par- ticular.

With Washington's frustration that Israel did not freeze settlements and make other concessions that would magically nour. ish peace, Israel backers wonder what the next two- plus years of Obama will mean for U.S. policy toward Israel.

Speeches and Interviews by Obama, Kerry and un- named staffers of late re- fect an outlook about the peace talks that poo-poos Israeli concerns.

Palestinian roadblocks, and, astonishingly, green- lights Palestinian violence and global isolation against which anonymous U.S. of- ficials who worked closely with Kerry on the peace push ottered a postmor- tem that reveals the drip- ping contempt with which the administration views America's closest ally in the region. *There are a lot of reasons for the peace ef- fort's failure," a U.S. official said, "but people in Israel truth.

The primary sabo tage came from the settle- ments." "The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they're also con- sidered a stubborn nation," another U.S. official said in a tone of nauseating con- descension. "You're sup posed to know how to read the map: In the 21st centu- ry, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli oc- cupation.

The occupation threatens Israel's status in the world and threatens Is- rael as a Jewish state." Such comments reflect a campaign of U.S. Israel- bashing that includes sev- eral major elements: First, the burden for Israell-Palestinian peace- Jerusalem, as Obama and Kerry have made clear. If Israeli Prime Minis. quence of failure.

The most recent, and striking, evidence came in a Times of Israel piece in ter Benjamin Netanyahu "does not belleve that a peace deal with the Pal- estinians is the right thing to do for Israel, Obama BY G.B. TRUDEAU told Bloomberg's Jeffrey Goldberg. "then he needs to articulate an alternative approach.

I THOUGHT That Israel is negotlating only with the Palestinian Authority and not Hamas, which rules Gaza and re- mains dedicated to israel's destruction; that rockets continue to fly from Gaza into Israel; and that Pales- tinian media and school- Israel-hating seems not to trouble Obama.

Second, Israel has a le- gitimate peace partner in Palestinian Authority Presi- dent Mahmoud Abbas, whom Obama describes in glowing terms as an unusu- ally brave, sincere, peace- seeking Palestinian leader.

Abbas, Obama said, is "committed to nonviolence and diplomatic efforts" and "sincere" in his willingness *to recognize Israel and its right to exist... to shun violence".. and "to resolve these issues in a diplomatic fashion that meets" Israel's 40803 That Abbas won't rec- ognize Israel as a "Jewish state, wants a unity gov- chiment with samas, gio rifles Palestinian martyrs, reiterates a right of return for all Palestinian refu- gees, continues to serve long after his presidential term ended, and presides over growing human rights abuses in the West Bank also doesn't trouble Obama.

Third, Palestinians will respond violently to more israen Paresuman Kraiock from legitimate frustra- tion over Israeli obstinacy, while the world just as legitimately launches boy- cotts against Israel. *I guess we need an- other intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress, one U.S. official said.

Similarly, Kerry predicted that failed peace talks would invite whatever may come in the form of a response from disappointed Palestinians and the Arab community and growing momentum for a global "de-legitimiza- tion campaign." thus an srae that re fuses to make peace - not- withstanding the obstacles - shan set www a descaves.

Watching from the re- gion and beyond, what must the rest of America's allies think of such U.S. behavior? •A former communications director for Vice President Al Gore. Lawrence 1. Haas is a senior fellow the Are ken foreton oly

Cite this item

"fairly in the recent Mideast peace talks?," Juneau Empire, 19 May 2014. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2014-028. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2014-028