The politics of peace

Soccer Dad
04 October '10

The Washington Post reports:

In its scramble to salvage Middle East peace talks, the Obama administration has dangled incentives before the Israeli government that touch on some of the most sensitive issues of final status talks between the two sides, administration sources said.

The perspective of the article is that because of Israeli intransigence the administration must sweeten the pot to get Israel to make nice. Of course unwritten is that Israel made a concession - a settlement freeze for ten months - during which time Abbas refused to negotiate. When he finally deigned to negotiate the ten months was almost up and he said that he could no longer negotiate if settlement construction was ongoing. So to keep peace talks going, the administration is offering incentives to Israel - to make a concession to Abbas.

The last paragraph is also interesting.

By some accounts, administration officials are surprised Netanyahu would reject what they see as a generous offer. But Netanyahu may also view such written assurances from Americans with skepticism. When Obama took office, his administration refused to acknowledge written assurances that President George W. Bush had given Israel in 2004.

I have no idea who is the source of these "accounts" is, but what's telling here is that the Washington Post is acknowledging that the Obama administration has shown Israel that it cannot be trusted.

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