Truthout notes they spell out not the terms of the peace process
but the terms of surrender.
Waving the white flag was Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, speaking for the PA. Dictating the terms of surrender were various Israeli governments, from Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni to Benyamin Netanyahu. And pushing along the process with humiliating prods were American negotiators like Condoleezza Rice and George Mitchell.
Contra semi-Zionists like Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo, Israelis from both sides of the Israeli bipartisan foreign policy establishment were "dictating," as noted with Kadima leader Lipni listed too.
As Livni said in May 2008 when she asked Palestinian negotiators why they insisted on a maximum of two percentage points of the West Bank to be given to Israel in any settlement, "Why do you insist on 98 percent? Why not 92 percent? ... My question is why you cannot have a state that represents most of your aspirations?"
Marshall claims I "don't understand." No, Josh, after an exchange of e-mails, on Palestinian issues, I now understand you all too well. I know you're not ignorant. Therefore, you're a willing dupe; while I won't (yet) label you a Zionist, you've earned the semi-Zionist tag.
Here's more on the Tzipi Livni whom I allegedly don't understand:
As Livni said in November 2007, when Palestinian negotiators threw up their hands in frustration at the impossibility of dealing with their Israeli counterparts and said they'd just fight for one state, "There is also two states, with one on the other side of the Jordan." Livni also said that Israel was making its fair share of negotiations, in particular reprising the Palestinian "historic compromise" of 1988 in which it recognized Israel. "We did not want to say that there is a 'Palestinian people," she said. Israeli negotiators were clearly willing to cross theretofore uncrossable lines at Annapolis.
And, as I told you, Josh, any "linkage" comments Lipni has made recently are solely in fear of what's happening in Egypt:
Indeed, Israel and the PA still pine for a negotiated outcome, even as they conflict on the particulars of borders, refugees and Jerusalem, but it's probably too late. That's why, as Cairo is awash in tear gas, aflame with Mubarak's Molotov cocktails and teeming with military tanks massing on its streets, Israel is asking its regional allies to tone down criticism of the Mubarak government. And that's why Netanyahu told his ministers, "We are closely monitoring events in Egypt and the region and are making efforts to preserve its security and stability." He knows that a dictatorial Egypt guarding Israel's southern flank is the best insurance for continuing the occupation or coddling the PA into selling out its people.
And, speaking of selling out, were Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian Authority figures ultimately looking for nothing more than a bigger fig leaf for a semi-state? Truthout suggests that, too.
The Truthout story also makes clear that Israel wants to hold onto any settlement that isolates East Jerusalem. And, an East Jerusalem nearly surrounded by a mix of West Jerusalem and Israeli settlements would be no fig leaf at all as a Palestinian capital.
Besides writing nothing about the Palestine papers, Josh hasn't written a huge amount about the Muslim Brotherhood in the current Egypt situation. Coincidence? Probably not.
