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Palestinians should abjure Obama-led talks because they’re a ‘figleaf’ for Israel, says Peace Now board member

Later we’ll be having a report on the discussion of “Jewish democracy” in Israel at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah last night. Meantime, I wanted to break out one statement at that event, by Kathleen Peratis. Peratis took the position that Jewish democracy can be redeemed in Israel; but she surprised the gathering by urging that Palestinians not resume the peace process because Israel has used it as a figleaf to suppress Palestinian freedom. She said:

Forcing the parties, forcing the Palestinians, forcing the P.A. [Palestinian Authority] to go back to the table I think is a setback, because Israel has used negotiations as a figleaf for the last decades and certainly even moreso in the last ten years. In the last couple of years when there has been obviously no process, and people are beginning to get the idea that the negotiation is a sham and always has been, there’s been more taste, more understanding of the righteousness and the justice of Palestinian– what some people call unilateralism. I don’t think that’s a bad word. But I think that Palestinians taking things into their own hands and not being told, ‘you can’t do anything, you can’t pursue justice, you can’t declare your freedom unless Israel tells you it it’s OK,’ I think people have begun to realize that that’s a very bad handcuff to put on Palestinians. The handcuffs were coming off and now with this new figleaf of a process that has been the result of Obama’s trip, I’m afraid that Obama’s trip will give people the idea that there’s a process when there is no process, and if the Palestinians go back to the table, it will be more of a sham and it’ll set back the possibility of moving things forward.

Peratis, a lawyer, is on the board of Americans for Peace Now and has been on the board of J Street too (though J Street rebuked her for meeting with Hamas; she doesn’t appear to be on the J Street board anymore). She is a co-chair of the Middle East Advisory Committee of Human Rights Watch and is an employment lawyer.

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Oooh, she cannot talk to Hamas and remain on the J-street Board? Oooh!
So, they too, want to way who people can talk to and who they cannot talk to. Never mind that negotiation is what you do with enemies. Pfui on that! No need to talk to Hamas, anyhoiw, because they’re a bunch of losers who have lost to Israel’s superior power. And the PA, too, tho we’ve trotted out the fig-leaf of “negotiations” to fool some gullible people here and there.

Abbas Agrees to Suspend ICC Action Against Israel
PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will temporarily refrain from unilateral action against Israel to give peace talks a chance to resume.

By Elad Benari
First Publish: 4/5/2013, 4:13 AM

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas will temporarily refrain from unilateral action against Israel to give U.S.-brokered peace talks a chance to resume, a PA official told AFP on Thursday.
“Abbas and the Palestinian leadership have decided to give a sufficient chance for (U.S. Secretary of State John) Kerry’s efforts to succeed,” the official said on condition of anonymity.
For around two months, Abbas and the Palestinian Authority would suspend all unilateral measures through United Nations agencies and would refrain from taking a case against Israel to the International Criminal Court, he said.
During the two months, “the Palestinian leadership will not make new demands to UN agencies,” the official told AFP, adding that this would give Kerry enough time to set up a framework in which peace negotiations might take place.
The remarks came just days ahead of a visit by Kerry, who will hold fortnightly meetings with Israeli and PA leaders as he tries to revive the stalled peace process.
The official warned, however, that if Israel failed to halt construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem — a longtime PA precondition for any talks to take place — the entity would immediately begin working through the international bodies again.
“Settlement building in E1 is a red line and erecting so much as one stone in the area… would destroy the (possibility of a) two-state solution,” he said.
Last week it was reported that Abbas plans an appeal to the International Criminal Court at The Hague if other measures to stop new Israeli construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem fail.
Last month, Issa Karaka, the Palestinian Authority’s Minister for Prisoner Affairs, urged Abbas to enroll the PA in as many international organizations as possible as quickly as is feasible, in order to capitalize on the recognition the PA received at the United Nations last year and use its standing in the international community to sue and prosecute Israel.
Karaka said that the PA should join the Geneva Convention, and once admitted, use the Convention’s provisions to prosecute Israel in the International Criminal Court for “crimes against the Palestinian nation,” he said.
Kerry is planning to pressure Israel and the PA to resume the negotiations, which have been stalled for nearly three years, and reportedly plans to offer the sides an outline which would see Israel releasing terrorists from its prisons and transferring areas from Area B, which is under joint PA-Israeli control under the Oslo Accords, to Area A which is under full PA control.
Kerry’s outline would have the PA undertaking a return to the negotiating table and promising not to file lawsuits against Israel with the International Criminal Court”

In 2 more months Isr can steal more land. Abbas needs to get over this Stockholm syndrome or battered wife syndrome he’s in and ‘leave’ the US……how many times does he have to get the shit beat out of him (Palestine) to understand this?
ICC,ICC,ICC,ICC….bite the f***king bullet and go do it.

Peace talks are an end in themselves, Abbas is putty in their hands, Abdul Satter Kassem, a political science professor at Al Najah University in Nablus, said: “It’s not that he is pressured by the Americans – he is owned by them.

“As long as we receive our loaf of bread from the Americans and the Israelis, he can’t do anything. That’s why Israel will continue building settlements and we will continue condoning its actions.”

American comment, ” The official warned, however, that if Israel failed to halt construction in Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem — a longtime PA precondition for any talks to take place — the entity would immediately begin working through the international bodies again.” Someone should tell this PA official that Palestine is not an entity any longer, The PA leadership is…. no I’ll get banned.

Marwan Muasher, foremr Jordanian foreign minister, said: “John Kerry is very keen to move the process forward, but whether he has the support of the White House is a very different matter.”

[Quoted in FT March 18th]