Tuesday, October 05, 2010

A Barry Rubin Perspective on Abbas

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...Abbas knew that the freeze would last nine months and might not be renewed when it ended in September. If he wanted to give Israel an incentive to continue it--by showing that this Israeli concession, brought progress toward peace and some advantage for Israel--Abbas could have acted. Instead, he stalled until the very last moment. For weeks, the United States begged and pressed him to return to talks.

Second, if the Palestinians negotiate a two-state solution they will get -- worst-case analysis -- almost all of the West Bank. There will be no Jewish settlements in that territory. The settlements will be gone. All the roads and buildings Israel built (unless dismantled in the days before the agreement’s implementation) will go to the Palestinians.

So if Abbas and the Palestinians are horrified by Israeli construction, wouldn’t it have made sense for them to negotiate real fast? But, on the contrary, they stretch out the process year after year after year, continually finding excuses for doing so. Remember that the PA refused to negotiate for well over a year after January 2009. All that time Israel was building on settlements. Then for the last nine months when Israel wasn’t building in the West Bank, the PA still refused to negotiate.

ABBAS LOOKS FOR A WAY TO END PEACE TALKS — WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE
Barry Rubin
Rubin Report, September 27, 2010

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1 comment:

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