Israel, on cue, announced on Wednesday it will be build 1,500 more homes for Jews in areas that the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations and the Obama administration publicly say will be inhabited by Arabs in a future Palestinian Authority state.
Welcome to the Peace Talks Follies, the poorest soap opera ever to leave Washington.
It is being played out in the Middle East because Americans would not tolerate such low-grade comic-tragedy on their soil, although Congress comes in as a close second.
The new homes will be built in the Ramat Shlomo neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, Gilo in southern Jerusalem, Givat Ze’ev on the road between Jerusalem towards Modi’in and the airport, and in communities in Judea and Samaria, including the Jordan Valley.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised almost a year ago that the homes would be built. That promise has remained a promise because John Kerry is Israel’s de facto Housing Minister.
Israel followed Kerry’s orders and unofficially froze all building for Jews in all cities that Mahmoud Abbas’s master plan calls for being under Palestinian Authority sovereignty in the future, which probably is far beyond the lifetime of Planet Earth.
Abbas figures he already won the Land for Peace prize, whereby Israel surrenders all of Judea and Samaria and most of what was Jordanian-occupied Jerusalem before 1967, all of this in return for giving Israel the proverbial piece of paper peace. The Obama administration knows very well that Israel will keep large cities, such as Maaleh Adumim, and Abbas also knows it, but only for the time being.
If and when the discussions with Israel reach the stage of borders and he sees he has received almost the entire Monopoly board, why not go for Boardwalk and Park Place? It couldn’t be a better way to lose another opportunity.
For now, Abbas has to play dumb, and he may be an idiot but he is not dumb. He rants and raves against Israel’s latest peace-busting plan to build homes for Jews.
Logic would dictate that he should be jubilant because all of those homes supposedly will belong to the Palestinian Authority one day. However, Abbas would prefer to stay alive rather than use logic, so his spokesman responded to Wednesday’s building plan announcement by saying it “destroys the peace process and sends the international community the message that Israel does not respect international law.”
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who knew very well that Kerry elbowed Abbas and Netanyahu months ago to follow the script, condemned the planned construction of homes as being “contrary to international law” and, of course, “an obstacle to peace.”
All of the clowns in this road circus are forbidden to tell the truth. Each one has to lie through his teeth and say what his audience wants to hear, but the problem for them is that each one is beginning to play to an empty house.
If anyone questioned that Israel agreed to free more terrorists on condition that Kerry gave the go-ahead for the announcement to build more homes, the government proved otherwise by making the announcement around 1 a.m. Wednesday, just as the first of 26 more terrorists went free to be welcomed by the friendly Arabs.
Abbas played the part and said there was no such agreement to receive terrorists and agree to new homes for Jews. “There are some living among us who say that we have a deal in exchange for settlement building, and I say to them, be silent,” Abbas said.
Abbas’ negotiator Mohammed Shtayyeh took the Oscar for chutzpa by stating that the new building plan “is clear proof that the Israeli government is not serious about the talks.”
At least he finally referred to them as “talks” and not “negotiations, because from the standpoint of the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations, anything Israel does only proves it is not serious as long as it does not simply agree to Abbas’ definition of peace, security for Israel and borders for Israel.
Hamas and its rival terrorist movement Fatah, headed by Abbas, now have their terrorists.
Israel now has its building plans
Now, the Obama Middle East Road Show stage goes over to the Palestinian Authority senior actor, uh, negotiator, Saed Erekat, and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.