• General strike shuts down PA
• Writing in The Australian (via Google News), Colin Rubinstein hits the nail on the head: settlements aren’t the primary obstacle to peace.
The greatest barrier to peace is that the Palestinians are exploiting settlements as a pretext to refuse to negotiate. The Netanyahu government met their demands with an unprecedented 10-month freeze on building in settlements in 2009-2010, but this failed to bring the Palestinians back to substantive peace talks.
Given this, the disproportionate criticism of Israel’s settlements is deeply counterproductive. Punishing Israel is a signal to Ramallah that it can secure political gains without having to negotiate – they can gain a state, either through Fatah’s campaign of diplomatic delegitimisation, or Hamas’s rockets and terrorism. Simultaneously, this sends a message to Jerusalem that the Palestinians will not be held accountable for violating their written commitments, as they did with their recent UN bid.
The chances for peace will increase only when the incentives for the Palestinians to avoid negotiating with Israel decrease.
Arab Spring Winter
• UN report confirms Hezbollah fighting for Assad in Syria.
• Meir Javedanfar: Why’s Iran silent Syria killing Palestinians?
Based on the Iranian government’s claims that it wants to help Palestinians defend themselves, will the Iranian regime provide weapons to Palestinians in Syria who are under attack from Assad’s forces?
Or are Palestinians victims only when Iran’s adversaries attack them, and not when Iran’s allies do the same?
• When Russian President Vladimir Putin says ending Syria’s civil war takes priority over Bashar Assad’s fate, you know you’ve got some tea leaves to start reading.
• Haaretz: Jordanian intelligence is worried that jihadists are hijacking the Syrian revolution.
Rest O’ the Roundup
• Reuters looks at how Iran’s getting around sanctions to export its oil.
• On a lighter note: What if we talked like reporters all the time?
(Image of Engel via YouTube/ABCNews, Maale Adumim via Wikimedia Commons/Avishai Teicher)
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