The more things change on Middle East peace process front, the more they seem to remain the same. As expected, responding to Israel’s refusal to halt the Jewish settlements on Palestinian land, the PLO has asked President Mahmoud Abbas to end the farce of peace talks with Benjamin Netanyahu.

The call by the umbrella body of all Palestinian resistance organizations, including Fatah, hardly comes as a surprise. Given Israel’s intransigence and open defiance of the world public opinion and desperate entreaties of U.S. President Barack Obama, the PLO decision was only inevitable. And typically instead of reining in the aggressive settlers, Netanyahu has the audacity to blame the impasse on the Palestinians themselves arguing that “restrained and moderate” construction in the West Bank doesn’t affect the peace process.
Yes, nothing Israel does affects the peace process! And it will go on doing the same until eternity and pretend it is willing to talk peace with the Palestinians.
What are the Palestinians going to talk about when they are cheated out of all their land? More important, where will the state of Palestine come up, if at all it comes up, when all Palestinian land has been gobbled up by the settlements? Israel is already in possession of 80 per cent of the Palestinian land and it is building more Jewish settlements on the rest of 20 per cent.
So what hope is there for the peace process? Is it any wonder then the Palestinians, including moderates like Abu Mazen, are getting increasingly agitated over the resumption of settlements? It’s about time the Americans, and the rest of the world realized, if they haven’t already, that Israel is not interested in peace or any settlement with the Palestinians. It may come to the negotiating table willy-nilly to humor the Americans and the world community but it cares two hoots for peace or security in the Middle East.
President Obama’s special Middle East envoy George Mitchell and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton were once again in the region in attempts to rescue the doomed peace talks, shuttling between Ramallah and Jerusalem all this week.
However, diplomacy and well meaning supplications for peace have failed to sway the Israelis so far. Netanyahu remains as contemptuous of Obama and his sincere desire for the resolution of this long festering conflict as ever. This notwithstanding the fact that the US is the biggest donor of financial aid and the source of all possible military, economic and political support for the Zionist regime. In fact, the Jewish state may not last a day without the active support and protection of Uncle Sam.
Yet Israel takes this invaluable support for granted often biting the hand that feeds her. Clearly, time has come for the U.S. and its other Western allies to realize that Israel will not embrace peace and willingly leave Palestinian lands of its own volition. A solution has to be imposed on Israel -- in its own interest and in the interest of America and the civilized world.
(The Khaleej Times)