Israel frustrated with Palestinians

Map of Israel, the Palestinian territories (We...Image via Wikipedia
Guardian:


An agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not happen in the next "one or two years", Israel's deputy prime minister said today, blaming the Palestinians for the lack of progress.

"We're fed up with giving and giving and giving, and not getting any real substance [in return]," said Moshe Ya'alon, the minister of strategic affairs, after this week's leak of secret documents on the peace talks. He dismissed the extensive concessions offered by Palestinian negotiators, revealed in the documents, saying they were insignificant compared to the "core of the conflict – our right to exist".

The Palestinians' refusal to recognise Israel as "the nation state of the Jewish people" was preventing a peace settlement, he said. The issue was the most important at stake in negotiations. "We are not ready to discuss territory without recognition of the Jewish state ... We're not ready to start with issues in which we give [ground] and do not get anything."

...
I have maintained all along that the Palestinians have noting of value to offer the Israelis. I am not sure if they agreed to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, it would be of any value, because the Palestinians lack the will and to some extent the means to stop other Palestinians from attacking Israel.

The article does suggest that the Palestinians turned down a deal with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert near the end of his time in office. It is yet another example of their failure to seize the moment.
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