Israel now tells us that unless The Iranians' putative nuclear weapons program is reined in, Israel will defer all but a few palliative steps in its dealings with the Palestinians.
In other words, "We, Israel, will never take our boots off the neck of the Palestinians."
Heretofore, Israel's bad faith in matters Palestinian has been evident for all to see. Some examples: disproportionality, overweening demands for terminological exactitude, breaking cease-fires, mass kidnappings, failing to allow vital materials into Gaza, destroying Palestinians' resources, massive and ongoing land theft, denying them water, etc., etc., ad nauseam.
It appears now that all this was just a prelude to the most nihilistic, cynical, and sweeping instance of bad faith imaginable.
The new Israeli government will not move ahead on the core issues of peace talks with the Palestinians until it sees progress in U.S. efforts to stop Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon and limit Tehran's rising influence in the region, according to top government officials familiar with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's developing policy on the issue.
"It's a crucial condition if we want to move forward," said Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, a member of the Israeli parliament and former ambassador to the United States. "If we want to have a real political process with the Palestinians, then you can't have the Iranians undermining and sabotaging."
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Netanyahu views the threat from Tehran as so acute that he is shaping Israel's policy toward the Palestinians around that issue -- a shift in approach that effectively puts Palestinian statehood after resolution of a complicated regional and international issue.
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"Realistically, we need to keep Iran at bay," Ayalon said, and until that happens, the Israeli government will largely limit itself to matters such as trying to improve the Palestinian economy and strengthen its civil institutions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
Just what will Israel do to "improve the Palestinian economy and strengthen its civil institutions?" Will Israel let the West Bank Palestinians have water? Allow enough food into Gaza to allow for proper growth of the children? Stop so-called "settlers" (an Orwellian term if there ever was one) from harassing and killing Palestinians on their own land? These measures, and many more, would be easy, but I doubt it. To "improv[e] the Palestinian economy" they will just build more settlements so the Palestinian helots can continue to earn a mean living serving their Israeli masters; and to "strengthen civil institutions," maybe they'll just stop bombing water plants and hospitals in Gaza, and give some old ambulances to the PA.
The worst aspect of this is that there is no stopping point to Israel's shirking of responsibility for its policies and actions. Assume that Iran's putative nuclear weapons program is affirmatively dropped. Then, let's say that somehow Egypt goes south, becomes militarily stronger, and Israel identifies it as a threat to its regional hegemony. Would that Palestinians continue to suffer for another few decades while the Egypt issue festers?
Under this character-disordered scheme, Israel's (opportunistic?) choice of how it views the outer world will inexorably and absolutely determine the Palestinians' fate.
And let's not forget "limit Iran's rising influence in the region," that other condition. Yes, let's all agree to limit a resource-rich nation of 80 million from attaining any more regional influence so that a rogue nation of 7 million without any natural resources can continue to hold US-backed, US-financed sway over an area as great as that held by any number of ancient empires.
This is Israel's finger in the face of the world. Time to break it off.