Israeli Settlements

Was Vice President Joe Biden embarrassed by the recent announcement, during his visit, that Israel intended to build more apartments in East Jerusalem? Absolutely. Was the timing intentional...by right wing orthodox factions of Mr. Netanyahu’s coalition government? Quite likely. Will this endanger the peace process? What peace process? There is not, nor has there been a workable peace process between Israel and the Palestinians in decades. Firstly because there is no cohesive Palestinian government. Fatah is toothless and while it may want peace, it does not know how to achieve it and appease the extremists in its own midst. Fatah is great at taking foreign aid money and not much else these days.

Hamas on the other hand, which runs the semi-independent area of Gaza, has no desire to make peace with Israel and constantly restates that its mandate is the absolute destruction of Israel.

So I ask again. What peace process?

Some of you are old enough to remember the Oslo Accords signed by Israel and the Palestinians with the assistance of President Clinton. Well you all know how that turned out. Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize for signing a peace treaty that was never put into effect.

So I ask again. What peace process?

Building apartments is not the issue. Giving up territory is not the issue. Israel has already proven its willingness to give up territory. It gave the Palestinians control of Gaza and look how that turned out. Gaza has become a launching pad for Hamas and Hezbollah rockets propelled into Israel... and peace is just as elusive as ever.

I firmly believe that the majority of Palestinians, and Israelis want peace. I also firmly believe that peace can only happen when a Palestinian Leader emerges who can legitimately speak for the Palestinians as a people AND who has their best long term interest….. at heart. So far that person has not been found.

If Israel announced tomorrow that it was not building any more apartments in East Jerusalem or any more settlements on the West Bank…… it would not move the peace process forward at all. It would be just another piece of theatre….. like the Oslo Accords. Vice President Biden knows this. President Obama will learn this. It’s time the media acknowledged this empirical truth and stopped repeating the fallacy that Israeli settlements on the Occupied Territory is a roadblock to peace.