The Middle East impasse

Photo: Hisham Sarsour / driknews

It was almost a foregone conclusion that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks would reach a stalemate after a few rounds of preliminary talks. With the Israelis insisting on building new settlements on the occupied West Bank lands along with the peace talk, and the Palestinians rightly refusing to do so without halting of the construction work, this impasse was inevitable.
The vital point in this case is if settlement goes on unabated there will be no land left for the Palestinians to have a state of their own. Israel does not say whether the current constructions would be the last one. In such a situation, the Palestinians have no option but to boycott the talks.
We are told that under international law such constructions in occupied lands are illegal! But does Israel care? The mild objection of the US to these construction works neither deter the Israelis nor benefit the Palestinians in any way. Israel has the possession of more than 78% of Palestine, and the major part of the remaining 22% is under Israeli military control. The Palestinians cannot move around without facing numerous checkpoints. Yet before the talks had started, both the US and the Israel were urging the Palestinians to make sacrifices for the success of the negotiations! Is it not ironic?
In these circumstances, the Middle East is not likely to see peace any time soon unless the US government is prepared to withhold its veto over implementation of the UN Resolution 242 without any reservations. But that seems quite unlikely in the near future.