- On August 21, Haaretz writer Natasha Mozgovaya headlined,
"Israel, Palestinians accept US invitation to direct peace talks,"
saying:
-
- They'll "restart direct talks on Sept. 2 in a modest
step toward forging a peace deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian
state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts."
-
- Another grand illusion is assured, fudged to look real.
Henry Kissinger coined the phrase "constructive ambiguity," meaning
to give negotiations an appearance of progress. For others, it's putting
lipstick on a pig or how Edward Said described the Oslo Accords and Declaration
of Principles, saying:
-
- "the fashion-show vulgarities of the White House
ceremony, the degrading spectacle of Yasser Arafat thanking everyone for
the suspension of most of his people's rights, and the fatuous solemnity
of Bill Clinton's performance, like a 20th century Roman emperor shepherding
two vassal kings through rituals of reconciliation and obeisance, (and)
the truly astonishing proportions of the Palestinian capitulation."
-
- It was unilateral surrender, a Palestinian Versailles,
affirming Israel's colonial agenda, giving the Palestinians nothing but
the right to be Israel's enforcer. All major issues were deferred, including
an independent Palestinian state, the right of return, the future of settlements,
borders, water rights, and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian
territory and future home of its capital.
-
- Seventeen years later, they're still unresolved and won't
be this time, another grand illusion planned, the same outcome assured
- betrayal by unilateral surrender, or as much of it as Abbas dare give.
-
- An earlier article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy:
Stillborn from Inception," reviewed earlier efforts since the mid-1970s,
quoting Netanyahu once calling the peace process "a waste of time,"
negotiating solely for Israeli dominance, the article accessed through
the following link:
-
- http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html
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- Here we go again, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
announcing on August 20 that on September 2, new talks will:
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- "re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final-status
issues which we believe we can complete in one year. There have been difficulties
in the past; there will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt, we will
hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us
and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere."
-
- In November 2007, the last round in Annapolis got Electronic
Intifada co-counder, Ali Abunimah, to compare it to a "big budget
Broadway extravaganza; they go on for years, but with each revival the
cast changes. What may seem like a tired production to some nevertheless
manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the
price of admission."
-
- Again now, major issues won't be resolved. The conflict's
root causes will be unaddressed, and failure will be papered over as success
called the most able to be accomplished this time.
-
- Stay tuned. Another round's coming, as futile as this
one, the process bogus because Israel and Washington want conflict, not
conciliation; photo-ops, not fulfillment; and promises, not a real equitable
peace affording Palestinians the same rights as Jews, what millions of
them demand, what no Israeli or US leader will give.
-
- September 2010 - The Cast
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- Included are:
-
- -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's most extremist
leader ever, a man who scorns peace and despises everything not Jewish
- a despot, not a democratic peacemaker, determined to avoid it; a man
who also publicly called attacking Iran his top priority; in other words,
a man who feigns peace but plans war, saying in a statement that reaching
a deal will be tough but possible, and that he's approaching the talks
"with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two
peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost
of which is security." He said nothing about equity because he won't
tolerate it nor will Washington.
-
- -- Mahmoud Abbas, a usurper, not head of state, who (with
Israel and Washington) deposed Palestine's democratic government and took
over; a delegitimized coup d'etat leader whose presidential term expired
on January 9, 2009, but hasn't called new elections; a man serving Israel's
interests, not his people's.
-
- -- Barack Obama, holding one-on-one talks with each leader
separately on September 1, a man James Petras called "the Greatest
Con-Man in Recent History," and "America's first Jewish President,
(reflecting his) one-sided and longstanding commitment to the State of
Israel and loyalty to" US Zionist power. Under him, like George Bush,
Israel generally gets what it wants, Palestinians given quickly broken
promises.
-
- -- Hillary Clinton will host the first September 2 session,
a woman derisive of peace; a war goddess who told ABC's Good Morning America
on April 20, 2008 that:
-
- "I want the Iranians to know that if I'm president,
we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly
consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate
them," promising the equivalent of 12 holocausts against Iran's 70
million people.
-
- Hamas leader and Palestine's elected Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyah is absent, as he was in November 2007, the first time in memory
that a legitimate peace partner was excluded from talks. Again now, and
that's the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a
willing partner, Haniyah criticizing the new talks, saying "nothing
has been achieved" to warrant them. His top priority is national reconciliation
for all Palestinians before negotiations with Israel, knowing their history
of futility.
-
- Other day one attendees include:
-
- -- Tony Blair, a reinvented war criminal, now the Quartet's
special Middle East peacemaker representative, faking it like he did as
prime minister; and
-
- -- Egyptian despot/President/ Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's
dictator/King Abdullah II, both reliably pro-Western, disdainful of Palestinians.
-
- George Mitchell, US Special Middle East Peace Envoy said
America's goal is "an agreement that will end the conflict for all
time and will result in the establishment of a viable, democratic and independent
state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel.
We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective,"
adding that subsequent sessions between the two sides will be held in the
Middle East, the Washington opener a photo-op, kicking off the process.
Asked what Hamas' role would be in the talks, he replied, "None."
-
- Peace or Just Talk?
-
- On August 20, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner suggested
the latter, headlining,"In Mideast Talks, Scant Hopes From the Beginning,"
saying:
-
- Though accepted by both sides, "just below the surface
there was an almost audible shrug. There is little confidence - close to
none - on either side that the Obama administration's goal of reaching
a comprehensive deal in one year can be met," given the futility of
trying for the past 35 years, an impossible task for one side with no credible
partner.
-
- As a result, "a resigned fatalism (pervades) the
air," pitting an intransigent Netanyahu against a feckless Abbas,
Al Quds University vice president Zakaria al-Qaq saying, "These direct
negotiations are the option of the crippled and the helpless."
-
- Israeli political writer, Nahum Barnea, is also skeptical,
stating, "Most Israelis have decided that nothing is going to come
out of it, that it will have no bearing on their lives. So why should they
care?"
-
- Former Israeli Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad politician,
Yossi Beilin, believes "There is not a chance in the world that in
a year - or two or three - peace can be achieved. The gap between the sides
is too big. Netanyahu did not come to power to divide Jerusalem or find
a solution (for) the Palestinian refugees."
-
- Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Palestinians Academic Society for the
Study of International Affairs scorned the new talks saying, "Abbas
is naked before his whole community. Everyone knows that this Israeli government
is not going to deliver anything," so why bother going through the
charade, Palestinians expressing that view, head of the Palestinian stock
exchange, Ahmad Aweidah saying:
-
- "Peace process? What peace process? That's so nineties.
After 18 years, don't they feel silly. There are only two scenarios. The
optimistic one is more of the same. The pessimistic one is it's going to
get worse."
-
- According to Samir Hulileh, Palestine Development and
Investment LTD (PADICO) CEO:
-
- "We are the audience in a theatre. We have memorized
the play so many times. It is repeated in different forms, and sometimes
with different faces, but it's the same. We know the final outcome. We
don't feel hope coming out of it."
-
- Street comments included:
-
- "There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have
seen no results. We no longer have hope."
-
- "It's a failure from the outset. Negotiations in
this way cannot lead to a state. We have no hope."
-
- "Netanyahu will not give a thing, not in a year,
not in years....the talks will never succeed."
-
- They're both travesty and tragedy, the exclusion of one
side and intransigency of the other assures failure. Like before, nothing
new will be introduced, the deal always one-sided - capitulation, not resolution,
assuring continued conflict because Netanyahu wants it, his way to blame
the victims, absolving himself of high crimes, including promises he has
no intention of keeping. Nor does Obama, "America's First Jewish President,"
his subterfuge too shallow to hide.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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