The response to the Palestinians' hint that they would pull out of direct negotiations if Israel resumes settlement activity on the West Bank, was a proposal to break the current stalemate: no expansion of isolated settlements, and a return to construction on those that Israel will retain after a final agreement. Like all negotiators, the Israelis, by tossing out the idea of “dividing” the freeze, are trying to create new difficulties for the other side. If this side rejects continuing with negotiations after the freeze ends on 26 September, it will be responsible for the collapse of the peace process. If it agrees, it will seem like the Palestinians have made a huge concession, which includes the recognition of two rights for Israel: one is that the settlements near the Green Line will be added to the 1948 territory, and the other is to establish settlements on occupied territory. From the Israeli standpoint, the issue involves stripping the Palestinians of the legitimacy of demanding a return of all territory occupied in 1967, after the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel within the 1948 borders on the eve of signing the Oslo Accords. In light of the currently catastrophic Palestinian and Arab situations, it doesn't seem the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah has any option except to accede to the demands of Israel and the United States, bearing the approval of the Arab Follow-up Committee. Mahmoud Abbas and his leading allies are the first to realize that the negotiations, which might not last for more than three weeks (from 2 September to 26 September), are no more than a tool to meet Israeli public relations needs. The Barack Obama administration has agreed to provide political cover for Israel, for reasons having to do with its image prior to the mid-term elections for Congress in November. Naturally, a surprise agreement on peace that Binyamin Netanyahu is talking about will not take place, especially since one of the influential parties in the region does not want this. Therefore, the meeting on 2 September will be merely a new exhibition of the failure of the Palestinians and the Arabs to set down a feasible strategy for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the return of occupied Arab land. Without slipping into an empty trading of accusations about responsibility for this failure, which we believe is the joint responsibility of “resisting” and “negotiating” groups, it seems that the most insulting thing for the Palestinian leadership, and for everyone who wants to achieve the dreams of his people, is to accept being turned into a useless tool that only helps the diplomatic and media efforts of the government of Netanyahu and Obama, on the pretext that not playing this role will be used to stop US and European assistance to the Palestinians, and leave destitute more than 140,000 employees in PA institutions. Continuing to impart the features of a humanitarian crisis or catastrophe to the Palestinian issue, whether in Gaza, the West Bank or the camps of the Diaspora, only empties the cause of its meaning. Doing so only works to destroy this cause, caught between the occupation and its “efforts” to alleviate the siege of Gaza and reduce the number of checkpoints on the West Bank. The Palestinian cause lies elsewhere. The first step to treating it involves ending the farce of national division. It also involves acknowledging that the forms of action to which the Palestinian struggle has become restricted, namely armed struggle that leads to a dead end, and the “peace offensive” that doesn't lead to anything, have played their historical roles. It is time for them to be retired, so that Palestinians can come up with new ways and methods of political and on-the-ground action.
