OPINION:
After America’s failure to bring the parties involved in the Middle Eastern conflict to the negotiating table, perhaps this is the time for the United States to pull back from active participation and allow Israel and the Palestinian Authority to make their own decisions about a possible peace. The Obama administration made a strategic blunder by placing the cessation of Israeli building in all sectors outside of the temporary, pre-1967 armistice lines as a top priority. This immediately escalated the demands of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas beyond any reasonable expectations.
This extreme position of the Palestinian Authority lowered the possibility of meaningful negotiations. If Israel now continues to build in those contested areas, it should motivate a pragmatic Palestinian leadership to come to the negotiating table before there is nothing left to negotiate.
Removal of the building moratorium completely should be the best incentive for Mr. Abbas to negotiate seriously and realistically, abandoning his current demands: the right of return of all descendants of those Palestinians who chose to leave Israel during the 1948 war, a redivided Jerusalem and Israel’s retreat to its pre-1967 borders, with the expulsion of 500,000 Israelis from those areas.
NELSON MARANS
Silver Spring, Md.
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