Middle East Focus: Abbas Seeing the Wrong Israelis? Netanyahu Seeing the Wrong Palestinians?........

Arabia Deserta

Abbas Seeing the Wrong Israelis? Netanyahu Seeing the Wrong Palestinians?........

Walking on water

“Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has distanced himself from foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman's speech at the United Nations, saying it "was not co-ordinated" with the prime minister's office. Lieberman told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would take "decades", and dismissed current talks between the two sides as unrealistic. He said a deal would not happen until the Palestinians "raise an entire new generation that will have mutual trust and will not be influenced by incitement and extremist messages". The foreign minister also described Iran as the largest problem in the region, and said that "the Iranian issue must be resolved" before solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…..…”

Maybe Mahmoud Abbas of the PA is negotiating with the wrong Israeli leadership. Maybe he should sit down with Lieberman (Avigdor the extreme right-winger not Joe the plain right-winger).
On the other hand, it is not clear that the Israelis are negotiating with the right Palestinian leaders. Abbas’s term as “president” expired in 2009, and in the last elections Hamas was elected to run the Palestinian government (nobody elected Salam Fayyad for anything: but his name literally translates to “overflowing peace” in English, so that is something).

Hamas does not want the “suggested” peace (maybe any peace), nor does Lieberman (ditto). Abbas wants the “suggested” peace, and Netanyahu may accept his own version of it. What a mess on both sides, no?
Cheers
mhg

m.h.ghuloum@gmail.com