No. Really.
Mitchell told Netanyahu that Washington has not taken a position on the proposal yet, noting that his job was simply to present Abbas’ offer to Israeli. The U.S. envoy told Netanyahu that Abbas indicated to him that if Israel were to accept the offer, he would be ready to enter direct talks immediately.
CONTEXT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, known primarily for his humanitarian work and infrastructure development in Gaza, rejected a proposal by Palestian Authority President Mohmoud Abbas to agree to the creation of an autonomous Palestinian State. The proposal would effectively restore the 1967 borders that existed prior to the occupation of Gaza and West Bank.
Essentially, this is what’s known as “The Two State Solution,” which purportedly has been the desired outcome bandied about by preening and ineffectual US presidents when they preside over these Middle East peace talks. Of course the only problem is when peace is genuinely pursued, not merely enshrined as a quite lovely but ultimately unattainable ideal..well, y’know, there’s that whole US/Israeli military industrial complex, neocolonial axis thing. The one that profits from militarized checkpoints, and punishing rains of bombs in densely populated areas, and flares of skin-scorching white phosphourous, and prostestors who are bulldozed , and protestors who lose eyes from tear gas bombs, and destroyed houses, and apartheid.
According to Palestinian sources, the United States rejected two earlier proposals put forth by Abbas to jump-start direct talks. One called for U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials to meet in order to reach agreement on a framework for direct talks. The other called for U.S. President Barack Obama to issue a statement spelling out the terms of the framework.
Whoops! Maybe next time! (But not really)
UPDATE: It’s concurrently heartbreaking and amusing (but altogether unsurprising) that corporate reportage (on CNN.com and TIME.com) of this event emphasizes Abbas’s heinous “preconditions” rather than the much more relevant fact that Netenyahu is refusing an offer widely considered, according to established conventional wisdom, to be the most sensible resolution to Isareli/Palestinian conflict. Especially since implicit in Abbas’s offer is an acknowledgment of Israel’s right to exist (hence the whole “two state” part of the “two state solution”). But we would all need to use our brain muscles to figure that one out. And that’s like, really really hard and stuff. Meanwhile, reporting within Israel (Ha’aretz in particular) is way more honest and direct and less beholden to certain interested parties. It’s a fun activity to compare the two.
UPDATE II: All these updates make me feel like Glenn Greenwald.
