THE NUMBER OF ISRAELIS WHO NOW BELIEVE IN A TWO-STATE SOLUTION CAN ‘FIT IN TWO TELEPHONE BOOTHS’

Here are two articles from Israel Today which mitigate against a successful conclusion to the U.S. brokered Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

EXPERT: ISRAELIS DON’T BELIEVE IN 2-STATE SOLUTION

Israel Today
December 8, 2013

Middle East expert Dr. Mordechai Kedar of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies says Israelis have almost totally lost their faith in the two-state solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Whereas a decade or two ago a majority of Israelis viewed the internationally-backed diplomatic effort as a harbinger of peace after 50 years of war, the number of Israelis who still feel that way can “fit in two telephone booths,” Kedar told Israeli radio station Arutz Sheva.

What happened in the intervening years to change most Israelis’ minds? In a word, Gaza.

In 2005, Israel “disengaged” from Gaza, uprooting 21 Jewish communities with a combined population of some 10,000 people. It was a gut-wrenching move for the Jewish state, but it was also the first major test of whether or not the Palestinians were serious about living in peace if they were given the lands they demanded.

“We gave land, they fired rockets into Israel,” noted Kedar. Since Israel pulled out of Gaza, nearly 10,000 rockets have been fired into southern Israel from the coastal enclave.

Kedar explained that Israelis aren’t about to let the same thing happen in Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”), from which terrorist rockets could easily hit Israel’s largest population centers and its only major international airport.

Kedar is currently promoting a peace plan that would grant the Palestinians increased autonomy in their own cities, but would stop far short of the independent, sovereign control over Judea and Samaria that the current negotiations are aimed at achieving.
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ISRAELI MINISTER: OBAMA WRONG TO BE OPTIMISTIC ON PEACE
By Ryan Jones

Israel Today
December 8, 2013

Israeli Economy and Trade Minister Naftali Bennett on Sunday took the Obama Administration to task for sounding such an optimistic note regarding the current Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

Over the weekend, both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry told the Brookings Institute’s Saban Forum that they had high hopes for the peace talks, and that a final status framework could be put in place within months.

At around the same time Obama and Kerry were making their lofty remarks, Palestinian terrorists operating out of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip fired two missiles into southern Israel.

Speaking to Israel Radio from Australia, Bennett noted that America cannot oversee a final status deal that somehow does not take Hamas into account.

“Imagine you’re negotiating over a car with someone who only owns half the car, and the owner of the other half says he won’t recognize any agreement you reach. You give him all the money but only get half the car,” the minister explained.

Washington has tried to ignore Hamas for the time being as it pushes forward talks between Israel and the government of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

Bennett went on to say that he is “for an agreement, but a real one that doesn’t harm our interests.”

In other remarks carried by France’s AFP, Bennett said that what Israel needed to do was extend its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria (the so-called “West Bank”).

“I favor implementation of Israeli sovereignty over the zone where 400,000 Jews live and only 70,000 Arabs,” said Bennett, referring to what is known as “Area C” - territory that is already under full Israeli security control.

As part of that plan, Bennett would grant Israeli citizenship to those 70,000 Arabs.