By Ted Belman
YNET asks “What’s the point of extending the peace talks?
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The Palestinians will pay a heavy financial price if they turn to the UN. Not only will the American government be forced by its Israel-loving Congress to end funding, but the EU will also stop its aid to the Palestinian Authority.
So choosing the UN tract is a very big gamble for Abbas. He prefers to keep extracting a price for continuing the negotiations. He also has to worry what Israel will do in response.
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We must keep in mind that prolonging the negotiations is not expected to lead to any breakthrough or a peace treaty, it is simply buying time.
Buying time is justified if you use it well, but most likely the Americans, Israelis and Palestinians are doing it so that by mid-2015 they’ll be in the same situation and the same place. [..] But for the Israelis and the Palestinians, this is just time to sit back and do nothing, while Israel actually has two alternatives to the agreement to prolong the negotiations.
The first is to announce a complete settlement freeze for as long as the negotiations continue, an offer the Palestinians could never refuse. The second is what is known as “Plan B” – a bolder and more desirable unilateral announcement by Israel about its future borders and which areas of the West Bank it will annex and which it will leave for one Palestinian government or another.
There’s no doubt that Plan B would elicit international condemnation and send the Palestinians scuttling to United Nations institutions. But that is to be expected, whether the talks implode this time or the next. At least the State of Israel can determine what it wants, even if it leaves the actual implementation to a later date.
Reverting to Plan B is not so ideal at present, given that Netanyahu and his government are not politically built for it. Therefore, we are doomed to haggle like market vendors over the number of prisoners we free, which kinds of construction we freeze and which we don’t, and spin our wheels in the mud on a road to nowhere.
“Full gas in neutral” is the name of the game that we are now playing.
Yesterday, Israel National News reported PA Will ‘Pay A Heavy Price’ for UN Move
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“One of the possible measures will be Israel applying sovereignty over areas which will clearly be part of the State of Israel in any future solution,” added Uzi Landau, referencing the areas of Judea and Samaria with a large Jewish population that have been proposed in talks as becoming part of Israel.
Landau warned that another response open to Israel was to economically penalize the PA for its move, by acting “to block financial aid to them,” according to AFP.
In mid-March, the PA announced it had reached a staggering $4.8 billion in debt, and that its 2014 budgetary deficit was $1.5 billion. As of February, the PA owed the Israel Electric Company 1.2 billion shekels ($375 million).
“Cancel the Oslo Accords”
Deputy Knesset Chairman Moshe Feiglin (Likud) on Wednesday similarly called on Israel to declare sovereignty, although he specified sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria, and not just “settlement blocs.”.
“Abbas runs to the UN and is essentially declaring the cancellation of the Oslo Accords,” noted Feiglin, urging Israel to seize the opportunity “to announce the anullment of those accursed accords and declare absolute Israeli sovereignty on all territories.”
Feiglin suggested offering all Arab residents citizenship, “similar to that which eastern Jerusalem Arabs received.”
I think that the government would approve of extending Israel law to the settlement blocs because everyone understands that they will remain part of the future Israel. Why wait? Furthermore, the hundreds of thousands of Israelis living in them deserve to be subject to Israeli law.
@ Bear Klein:
Where do you think I got Comment #4 from since the post was deleted from Israpundit. There’s alot to learn from Bennett on Youtube. He maintains that about 30% of Israelis just keep going back and forth on the Palestinian issue. The other 70% are working to move the Jewish state forward. I will stick with the 70%!
@ Bear Klein:
I don’t know what you were expecting given the position he is in right now. Cut him a little slack. ‘Read between the lines’.
Just because you or Ted found it boring doesn’t justify that it was deleted. There are alot of items on Israpundit that one might find boring.
Why only the major settlement blocs? why not all of C which has most of the vacant land and the Jordan valley? I see no reason why the pals should have more than the area they sit upon in large numbers. Just leave the pals with A and some or all of B. If you want to give more let them negotiate for it dont start out by giving what they dont deserve. If annexing C unilaterally then maintain a claim to A & B so as not to waive claim, but leave that open to negotiations for future changes and current arrangements..
@ dove:
You can search Naftali Bennett on YouTube it was there.
Ted is right I watched it live and it was boring.
Love Bennett but this was so so!
@ Ted Belman:
Maybe not for you or the other Israelis but it was comforting for the Diaspora Jews who are strong supporters of Israel as a Jewish state. Forget about the ones who have no connection to the homeland. It was suppose to be 30 min but only 14 min recorded?
Rome wasn’t built in a day Ted – the rebuilding of the Jewish nation is still a work in progress.
@ Buzz of the Orient:
It is not for sure the payments will end but certainly in the case of the US it is say 70% chance given the current circumstances. The Europeans have also threatened this.
They already way too short of money to pay their bills. If Israel desires it can make this house of cards collapse without much effort.
@ dove:It wasn’t worth the time.
@ Ted Belman:
Ted, why was this radio broadcast of Bennett deleted from Israpundit?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=6ZFtApbkuMY
Sorry, I just looked at the “By Ted Belman” at the top of the article.
@ Buzz of the Orient:You are right. Keep in mind that I didn’t write the article.
Why are you so sure the US and the EU will end foreign aid to the PA? There is no guarantee of that.