by Barry Rubin
Let’s consider what has just happened. A farce.
 What
 is shocking is the lack of outrage by mainstream journalists and 
foreign policy opinion-makers. This has required the slanderous 
consignment of normal and proper and competent foreign policy 
practices–as would have been demanded and done at any time in U.S. 
history–to silly partisanship that isn’t even worth discussing.
The
 United States of America officially announced the resumption of 
negotiations when they are nowhere near arranged. The mass media 
breathlessly followed each claim and got it WRONG. 
No
 one seems to have noticed. No one pointed out why there will NOT be 
serious talks. No one pointed out that the Palestinians have refused to 
negotiate for 13 years. 
No one pointed out the PA cannot negotiate peace because it cannot commit the Gaza Strip to anything 
Nobody
 pointed out in the establishment that the United States is supposed to 
be on Israel’s side or why the settlements are NOT the problem for 
peace.
Has
 this happened before? Yes, in late 2010 when President Obama announced 
at the UN that the talks would soon restart at Camp David. Prime 
Minister Netanyahu agreed; the Palestinians refused. Is there a pattern 
here?
Does anyone notice that the Palestinians keep demanding more preconditions, Israeli concessions but never come to the tab;e?
Why,
 if Palestinians are so eager and desperate to get a state do they not 
try to get one? Has anyone considered the non-logic of that claim?  
Why
 should Israel have to again make a concession of freeing Palestinian 
terrorists who murdered Israeli civilians to get peace talks? Especially
 when the Palestinian Authority–and even those previously released–have 
returned to murder!
Why
 dd the U.S. promise to Israel that it would support the 1947 ceasefire 
lines PLUS settlement blocks as its new borders, even get mentioned in 
the coverage? The U.S. made a conflicting promise of the precise 1947 
ceasefire lines to the Palestinians. This was a huge breaking of a 
promise to Israel on which Israeli concessions that were made at the 
risk of lives had been based!
Why, then, should any future U.S guarantee to Israel be believed?
These
 are only some of the questions that should be raised. This public 
debate is being conducted on a false, sloppy, inaccurate basis in which 
the main news media and the U.S. government can’t even get their faces 
straight and remember what happened a few years ago.
Barry Rubin
Source: http://www.gloria-center.org/2013/07/foreign-policy-farce-u-s-conduct-of-israelpalestinian-peace-process/
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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