In the last week the Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with each other under an American pressure. Although Netanyahu considered the meeting a successful step for Israel, Abbas stated several times that the current Israeli position does not allow any kind of negotiations between the two sides.[singlepic id=67 w=320 h=240 float=right]
President Obama seemed to be trying to create a pressure on both sides to restart the negotiations process although he failed in convincing the Israel government to stop its settlements building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Alquds Newspaper stated today that non-direct negotiations will take place in Washington in the next week between Israelis and Palestinians.

At the same time the Haaretz Israeli newspaper published that Israel asked from the Palestinian authority to withdraw its complaint against Israel at the Lahai Court for the latter’s crimes in the last war on Gaza. In exchange Israel promised to allow a new Palestinian cellular network to start working in the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian authority refused the Israeli demand and considered it a blackmailing.

Prime Minister Netanyahu made a long speech in the United Nations general assembly criticizing the world for not moving to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Netanyahu also criticized the last UN Gaza report that accused Israel of war crimes in the last war on Gaza. Netanyahu stated that Israel did its best to make peace with the Palestinians by withdrawing from settlements around Gaza from “One Side”. The prime minister considered Israel’s last war on Gaza completely legitimate since Israel has a right to defend its citizens which according to him were suffering from thousand of rockets which were launched daily on Israeli cities.

While I was watching Netanyahu’s speech I almost got confused and felt as if the Palestinians were a super power and are aiming their tanks and army towards Tel Aviv. Despite the fact that Netanyahu talked about the right of self defense which the UN and the International law assure for each state, he forgot to talk about the Israeli actions before the war, within it and after it.
Israel started its siege on Gaza since the day Hamas won the Palestinian parliament elections. Gaza strip was considered an enemy and was turned into a huge prison were more than a million Palestinians were living under the Israeli control. The war on Gaza brought no real benefit for Israel but instead gave the Israelis a chance to try to create a pressure on the Palestinian Politicians to surrender for the Israeli demands by causing huge damage and a lot of causalities between the Palestinian civilians; the same Israeli strategy which was used in its last war on Lebanon.

Israeli politicians admitted that Israel did not make any kind of victory or success in its war on Gaza but instead created a new generation of hate and demand for revenge within the Palestinians and the Arab world. Until today Israel continues to control the borders and prevent Palestinians from living normally in Gaza.
The Israeli army investigated several cases which were discovered regarding the Israeli army attacks against Palestinian civilians. Israeli soldiers confessed that their commanders asked them to shoot anything moving without noticing whether he or she is armed or a civilian. Netanyahu ignores all these facts and wants the world to congratulate him for killing more than a thousand Palestinian civilian and the death camps which he and the former Israeli government created for Palestinians to live and die in while living under the worst living circumstances.

Although Prime Minister Netanyahu claims that he and his Israeli government want to make peace with the Palestinians, he continues to refuse any kind of settlement freeze in the West Bank and Jerusalem. Instead of making steps towards peace, settlers are allowed to enter the Aqsa mosque to try to abuse Palestinian prayers who were simply praying. The entrance to the mosque is not allowed for all the Palestinians and the right of free worshiping is never given. It seems that neither Netanyahu nor the Israeli leadership did understand from its past experience that once the Aqsa mosque is messed with, the whole situation would turn into a chaos of violence that no one can control.

If president Obama fails to create real pressure on Israel to stop its settlements building which is leaving nothing for the Palestinians to make their state on, nothing will be achieved towards making peace between the two sides. Instead we will all return to the situation before Camp David negotiations and a new round of violence will be the next stage. The settlements are not the only issue but if the United States cannot push Israel into stopping this minor action will it be able to convince Israel to make real compromises for the sake of peace? I personally do not think so.

The Palestinian authority and Mahmoud Abbas are fulfilling the whole American and quarter demands but cannot get in exchange an Israeli one intention for peace. The real problem which will be facing all of us is the impossibility of fulfilling demands from one side while the other side is neglecting the existence of a complete people who are living beside it.

Ziad Khalil Abu Zayyad

A Palestinian-Arab living in East Jerusalem, Ziad graduated from College Des Freres in Jerusalem in 2003. Ziad finished his major in International Relations and English Literature from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ziad is a former President of the Watan student movement at the university. He is interested in Middle Eastern political issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Founder of the Middle East Post and MEL (Middle East Future Leadership Network), he represents Palestinian youth at several international conferences.

Website - More Posts