Abbas claims he want peace. Netanyahu claims he wants peace. But, it won't happen. The train has already left the station.
Had the Palestinians really wanted peace, they would have grabbed any number of offers made in the past; the latest being what was discussed by Ehud Olmert. Now they say they want talks but those talks must continue from where they were with Olmert. What is Abbas smoking? The Olmert discussions are off the table. (The world only learned of them through the information leaked through Wikileaks.)
And, it's not that Abbas is a foolish person. He couldn't make peace if he wanted to. The Arab street, and by that I mean the Salafist elements among the Muslims would kill him. Also, the Arab children in their classrooms have for years been taught the Arab narrative wherein Palestinian land was stolen from them by the Europeans and given to Jews. Nothing Abbas could hope to get from Israel would be enough.
Also as time passes and the Israeli's see what they got for departing from land south of the Litani River in Lebanon, and what they got when they left Gaza, the Israelis see that nothing good will come from a treaty with the Palestinians. Twice burnt is once too often. And, what would peace look like anyway? In Egypt, only American money keeps the former head of the Muslim Brotherhood faithful to earlier treaties with Egypt. In Jordan the king's thrown sits on a knife's edge.
No, the Israelis are not going to commit suicide. There will be no right of return to Israel for Palestinians. (We haven't even mentioned Arab compensation for the equal number of Jews expelled from their homes in Islamic countries in '48.) There will be no giving any land to the Palestinians than what they already have. And, if some land were yielded, it would be an amount unacceptable to the Palestinians. And, for sure, the Jews are not about to divide Jerusalem. So what are we talking about?
A Switzerland-like Palestine is as remote as the land of Oz.
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