Not me saying it. Bill Clinton:
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is responsible for the inability to reach a peace deal that would end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, former U.S. President Bill Clinton said on Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York, the former U.S. president was quoted by Foreign Policy magazine as claiming that Netanyahu lost interest in the peace process as soon as two basic Israelis demands seemed to come into reach: a viable Palestinian leadership and the possibility of normalizing ties with the Arab world.
http://www.haaretz.com/...
And Clinton is exactly right. Netanyahu has, and will, throw up hurdle after hurdle to avoid the creation of an independent, viable Palestinian state.
Then there is the whole moving the goalposts gambit, like the bunch of right-wing Israeli government pre-conditions that is now so large that it includes the prior recognition of Israel not just as a state (which Saudi Arabia voluntarily agreed to in 2002 in a peace initiative totally ignored by their oil-soul-mates in the White House as well as Israel, of course) but as a Jewish state. And further: Hamas would not be allowed at any negotiating table (even though they are the elected representatives of the Gazan population and some respected authorities think that their “we don’t recognize Israel” position [actually not held by all of its leadership] is nothing but a bargaining chip, of which they have precious few others); a discussion of Palestinian repatriation could not be on the agenda either, even though the leading Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has, since the draft peace settlement “Geneva Accords”, negotiated by himself and former center-left Israeli government Cabinet Minister Yossi Beilin in 2004, accepted a token 50,000 as his negotiating starting point.
http://www.greanvillepost.com/...
The Arab League 2002 offer. You may or may not remember it, but it was when the Arab states offered a comprehensive of the entire conflict, including Palestine. Had an offer that Israel used to beg for, and at one time would have jumped at. Yet, there has never been Israeli engagement on the offer. They have successfully buried down the memory hole, at least in the U.S. Which is really all that matters for them.
Netanyahu may mouth the words for international consumption, but he will never agree to it. His own father doesn't believe him:
Professor Ben-Zion Netanyahu told an interviewer on Israel’s Channel Two that his son had told him that he had placed so many conditions on his offer last month of a Palestinian state as to make it unacceptable to the Palestinians. “He told me that they would never meet even one of those conditions,” he said.
http://rt.com/...
His whole strategy is to keep delaying, avoiding and obstructing for as long as it's possible to do so. Until the Palestinians give up out of hopelessness, and agree to some sort of Bantustan arrangement for the west bank. As long as he is the U.S. government in his hip pocket, he will be able to do so.