On taking office Netanyahu's extremest coalition injected a new condition for any Peace agreement that Palestinians must accept Israel as a Jewish state, (relegating 1.2 million Israeli Palestinians to a permanent second class status) as a sure fire deal breaker in order to abort any possible Peace Talks. A year and a half later and Bibi's racist ruling coalition finds itself engaged in Peace Talks primarily to placate its sponsor and diplomatic enabler the United States.
Israel could drag out peace deal over decades
However, Mr Netanyahu is reportedly is hoping that the agreements reached under an accord would be phased in stage-by-stage over as much as 30 years.
Israel reportedly hopes that a protracted timetable would test the viability of a peace deal by gradually building confidence that its security needs would be met even as it withdrew from territory that would become part of a Palestinian state.
UPDATE: Poll added.
Now we get an un-serious proposal from Bibi to keep the occupation in place for another generation, while illegal settlements and their whole Apartheid road, and water systems would remain in place for much of that period.
Israel reportedly hopes that a protracted timetable would test the viability of a peace deal by gradually building confidence that its security needs would be met even as it withdrew from territory that would become part of a Palestinian state.
While a phased withdrawal with confidence building measures are probably recognized by all parties as the most practical way forward, dragging the process out over another generation pushes any coprehensive solution so far into a remote future that it destroys any confidence that a Palestinian state is attainable. Especially given Israel's track record of reneging on its commitments under the Olso accords, (and yes there were failures to meet commitments on both sides).
From the HufPo:
The Art of Talking Middle East Peace with a Forked Tongue
Israel reminds me of that delinquent child whose parents coddle it, and always come to rescue and justify its misbehavior. But the misbehavior has reached a level where it is usurping the United States' authority
I've long maintained that we will see when Israel is serious about making peace when it halts all construction of its illegal settlements. While Bibi's poorly enforced, partial, temporary, settlement freeze was a baby step in the right direction, the slow motion ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in occupied territories (by destroying their homes they weren't allowed to have permits for) hasn't let up at all.
This comes from Israel's Deputy Prime Minister, and Foreign Minister:
Israeli FM doubts peace possibility
"I do not believe that a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians is possible within a year, nor even during the next generation," Lieberman is quoted as telling members of his ultra-nationalist Yisrael Beitenu party at a function in advance of Wednesday's Jewish new year.
Remember Lieberman was Bibi's Deputy Prime Minister and right hand man in the 1990s. Apparently that hasn't changed much.
I doubted that Netanyahu's hard line ruling coalition was ever capable of negotiating in good faith and these latest developments only reinforce my reservations.