Sunday, April 25, 2010

Quite An Imposition

"Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas urged President Barack Obama on Saturday to impose a Mideast peace deal..."

What does this even mean? The U.S. can't "impose" peace. (Maybe the Palestinians could by laying down their arms, but that's a separate issue.) A deal can only happen if there's a meeting of minds between the two sides.

The article goes on to say there's a "growing frustration [among Palestinians] after nearly two decades of failed negotiations with Israel."

But later, we read:

...Abbas also dismissed the idea of establishing a Palestinian state within temporary borders.

He referred to recent proposals for such a provisional state, but did not elaborate. He said the Palestinians were being asked to "take a state with provisional borders on 40 or 50 percent, and after that we will see."

But he stressed "we will not accept the state with temporary borders."


So apparently the Palestinians' idea of negotiations is they don't budge while Israel (forced by America, if possible) gives them everything they ask for, rather than almost everything they ask for.

If the Palestinians don't want to be frustrated, I suggest they learn that negotiation means compromise. President Obama could help the process along by putting pressure on them to come to the table. Too bad he'd rather pressure the other side.

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