Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday revealed that extensive efforts to extend Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were in progress when Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas announced – in what the Associated Press described as a “hastily convened” press conference – that he would be turning to the United Nations and seeking to ascend to 15 international treaties as the “State of Palestine.”
Observers have since speculated that the gambit was a rushed effort to ward off rivals seeking to exploit popular discontent against Abbas, who is currently serving the tenth year of an original four year elected term and had years ago maneuvered out the top Palestinian technocrat charged with bolstering the West Bank economy.
Abbas has subsequently brushed off U.S. calls to reverse his decision to turn to international institutions, which – by pocketing three rounds of Israeli prisoner releases and then reneging on promises to avoid diplomatic warfare – was seen as confirming fundamental fears that the Palestinians could consistently exploit asymmetries built into the peace process, under which Jerusalem is expected to offer tangible concessions such as prisoners or territory in exchange for intangible diplomatic commitments.
Veteran U.S. diplomat Dennis Ross on Monday gestured toward the dynamic in a talk held at the Washington Institute, noting that the U.S.-backed framework had “reflected a pattern often seen in past negotiations.”:
Israel is asked to take steps it sees as very difficult, and what the Palestinians will do in turn it sees as insufficient, and so Washington steps in to offer compensation that the Palestinians cannot. U.S. efforts make the Israeli moves possible, which in turn produce something for and from the Palestinians. For example, Israelis have frequently raised the issue of Jonathan Pollard, a spy imprisoned in the United States since 1987 — in their view, Pollard’s release would diminish the political difficulty of taking certain steps in the peace process.
Top Israeli officials are nonetheless continuing to call for renewed talks. Israeli Justice Minister and chief negotiator Tzipi Livni on Monday declared that negotiations should continue, and suggested alternative formats and structures that might keep them afloat. For his part, top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reportedly declared over the weekend that, that as far as Abbas his Fatah faction are concerned, “Hamas is a Palestinian movement and is not and never was a terrorist group.”
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