In good news today, the Obama Administration has floated the idea of allowing the US to support a Palestinian government, even if it included Hamas:
the administration has asked Congress for minor changes in U.S. law that would permit aid to continue flowing to Palestinians in the event Hamas-backed officials become part of a unified Palestinian government.
This is a very good move. No Palestinian government can bring peace unless it has a mandate from the people, and currently either Fatah or Hamas would be lucky to rally 50% of the Palestinian people on its own. Neither party, alone, can gain such a mandate under current conditions. The US’s attempts to undermine Palestinian unity by funding Fatah (and the PA) if it fights Hamas but threatening to cut it off if it forms a unity government has been lethal to any hope of a peace settlement.
It’s not at all clear that Obama can convince Congress to change the law. Nonetheless, the fact that he is working to remove one of our most counterproductive policies in the region is a very good step.
However, Netanyahu’s government has taken the opposite path, reiterating its demand that Palestinians formally acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state" before they will negotiate.
Mahmood Abbas had already given the correct response to this statement, which was that the internal formulation of Israel was none of his business:
"It is not my job to give a description of the state. Name yourself the Hebrew Socialist Republic - it is none of my business."
Indeed, Abbas is entirely correct in this. At the heart of sovereign lies the principle that one nation may not interfere in the internal affairs of another. Israel would never, of course, let Arab nations interfere with its own internal affairs in any other significance. Given that fact, it is hard to view Netanyahu’s repeated demands that the Palestinian Authority take a position outside of their purview as anything other than a gross delaying tactic.
Meanwhile, while negotiations are continuously delayed, facts on the ground continue to be shape. Peace Now reports:
Israel's previous government [Olmert] built or issued bids for some 9,000 homes for Israelis in Jerusalem and the West Bank, despite its promise to pursue a peace deal with the Palestinians, settlement monitors said Monday, summarizing Ehud Olmert's three years as prime minister.
As part of that move, Israel is currently constructing 60 homes near Jerusalem.
The work, in East Talpiot settlement, is aimed at creating a belt around East Jerusalem that would sever it from the rest of the West Bank, the group says.
Many of the settlers who occupy these homes are becoming increasingly violent. Just today comes another report of settler violence:
An Israeli settler shot and critically a Palestinian teenager from the northern West Bank village of Madama, south of Nablus, on Monday.
...
Daghlas told Ma’an that Faraj and other members of his family were tending their land near the settlement when a settler stepped out of his car and shot at him.
Where does that leave the situation? Obama is attempting to make genuine changes that could allow peace to develop. Congress is likely to be reticent. Netanyahu has gone from simply delaying negotiations to making absurd demands that Israel would never allow in other circumstances. The Israeli government continues to develop "facts on the ground" that separate Jerusalem from the West Bank. And the settlers grow ever more violent against the Palestinian population.
Much was written here a couple weeks ago when Rahm Emanuel suggested that Obama wished to see a Palestinian state in his first term in office. Given the increasing "facts on the ground", I believe this is Obama’s only option. If he cannot bring about a Palestinian state soon, Jerusalem will be entirely cut off from the West Bank, and Palestinians will be given a choice: accept a rump "statelet" without any part of Jerusalem, or continue living under Occupation. Nothing about the Palestinian history suggests they will surrender East Jerusalem. If the "facts on the ground" are completed, the opportunity for a two-state solution is ended.
I hope Obama succeeds, but there are a lot of barriers standing in his way.