05/08/2010
No one ever tells the whole truth, even in simple cases such as negotiations, and here is a story to illustrate that. Of all the American Presidents, Barack Obama is actually the most enthusiastic to establish a Palestinian state and liberate the West Bank and Gaza. This is something that the Arabs and their supporters have failed to achieve through war, bombings, demonstrations or zealous speeches over the past 40 years. It is natural to regard negotiations as an alternative to defeat, and even the "Oslo Accords" that were criticized by many achieved more than empty rhetoric. It's thanks to those negotiations that [late Palestinian President] Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Liberation Organization [PLO] returned home from exile in Tunisia, together with over 100,000 Palestinians, to live in the West Bank and Gaza rather than the Tunisian town of Hammamet, or the Beirut district of al-Fakhani. They returned to Palestine; and as a result of this the Israeli process of capturing [Palestinian] land and expelling its Palestinian citizens came to an end.
Today, Arafat's successor has been in a state of limbo ever since Obama sent him his first message immediately after he assumed power, nearly one and a half years ago; inviting him to negotiate. Although Abbas has always negotiated with the Israelis directly, he decided this time to add a new condition; aimed at stopping settlement construction. Though his intentions were correct, his condition served the interests of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who does not wish to enter into negotiations, and is searching for an excuse to evade Obama's pressure. Therefore as a result of this, the Palestinian leadership missed out on the most important 18 months [of Obama's presidential term].
What people may not know is that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is also subject to intense Arab pressure warning him against direct negotiations, despite the fact that the Arabs were silent about this issue, and about settlement construction, during the Arafat era... READ MORE
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