While we were watching some bloated d/bag bang his gums….the rest of the world was continuing to evolve…….my interests lie in the Middle East so I will write what I know……..in case you were not aware there has been a lengthy process going on between Israel and the Palestinians….working on a possible peace accord……..first, Israel does NOT want a peace….the Palestinians just want what is theirs….the West bank….all of it not the parts Israel does not want right now………

The process has hit a snag…Surprise….bet you never thought that would happen (sarcasm is intended)…….

Palestine’s long-feuding Hamas and Fatah factions have agreed to reunite, they announced today, following a meeting in Gaza yesterday. The groups plan to form a unity government in the next five weeks, and then hold national elections in six months, the Jerusalem Post reports. This isn’t the first time the sides have struck deals, only to later have them fall apart, the BBC notes, but Fatah’s Azzam al-Ahmad sounded determined as he left for negotiations yesterday, saying, “We are going to the Gaza Strip not to make new proposals but to end the division.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the reported deal, saying it would kill peace talks, the Times of Israel reports. “It’s impossible to make peace with both Israel and Hamas,” Lieberman said. The nine-month peace talk window John Kerry brokered ends next week, and negotiations haven’t been going well. Mahmoud Abbas yesterday threatened to dissolve the Palestinian Authority entirely if talks failed, foisting responsibility for Palestine on Israel, the AP reports. Abbas said Israel’s West Bank policies had left his government powerless anyway.

Is this a good sign?  Well from my point of view…yes….but from an Israeli point of view….not so much….but why?

The revision of the narrative on how the Israel-Palestinian peace talks died has taken another dramatic shift today, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring the talks dead because of today’s unity deal between Fatah and Hamas, and that Abbas “chose Hamas over peace.”

Of course the talks were effectively dead nearly a month ago, when Israel reneged on a prisoner release. No real talks have happened since. At the time, Israeli officials claimed Secretary of State John Kerry wholly to blame for the talks’ collapse.

Now, with the deadline for the talks to end just a week away, and no one seriously expecting anything to come between now and then, the unity deal is retroactively being portrayed as the deal-breaker.

Netanyahu and others insisted throughout the day that Fatah could not have unity with other Palestinian factions and a peace deal with Israel, and would have to choose. The reality is that a peace deal with Israel was already essentially off the table, and with so many Israeli officials long claiming the lack of Palestinian unity as an obstacle to making a deal with them, it isn’t clear how this would seriously harm a new round of peace talks, if one is ever proposed.

This d/bag wants it his way or NO way…..and of course the US has chimed in and as one would expect….they agree with Israel………

The US State Department has issued a statement today declaring themselves “troubled” and “disappointed” by the news that the Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas have reached a reconciliation agreement, ending years of violent acrimony.

Officially, the State Department presented this as a problem that “affects peace talks” and could prevent the extension of the talks beyond the deadline of April 29, though no one seriously believed an extension was coming anyhow.

The reality is that dividing the Palestinians has been a fairly long-standing US policy, and the Fatah-Hamas split after the 2006 elections came in no small part because of US lobbying for Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas to ignore the results.

The State Department had effectively failed at salvaging the peace talks weeks ago, and seems to be hoping to spin this unity deal as their excuse.

This is typical……Israel calls all the shots.

Has anyone bothered to ask the Palestinians what they think of this?

After the news the other day of this unity move…Israel was pouting as they always do….and to be sure that there will be no peace in the Middle East has decided to opt out of the negotiations……..

The Israeli government says it has decided to halt peace talks with the Palestinians in response to yesterday’s unity agreement between rival Palestinian factions, abruptly ending the nine-month peace initiative brokered by Secretary of State John Kerry. The negotiating period had been set to end next Tuesday, though both sides had been trying to agree to an extension.

Israel’s Security Cabinet unanimously decided to cut off contacts after a five-hour meeting today. It announced the decision in a statement sent to journalists. Israel is furious over Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to form a unity government with the rival Hamas movement after a seven-year rift. Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist group.

So unless Kerry can pull a miracle out of his ass…there will be NO peace this year.  And that will not happen because Israel does not want it to happen……here is the statement…….

The US spokesperson said that Israel cannot be expected to negotiate with a party that does not believe it has a right to exist. The hypocrisy and irony is thick. Israel doesn’t recognize the right of Palestine to exist. As for the demand that Hamas renounce violence, likewise, Israel has not renounced violent aggression toward the Palestinians, something it and its settler surrogates engage in daily. The fact is that parties to negotiations are often engaged in violence against one another (hence the negotiations) and often don’t recognize each other’s legitimacy at the start.

Palestinians must recognize Israel’s right to exist, but Israel can, through its words and its actions, deny Palestine’s right to exist. Palestinians must renounce all violence in order to have legitimacy in peace talks, whereas Israel is not only exempt from this obligation but can use violence as a matter of routine

This could be a good deal for Israel……Hamas might fall in line with Fatah and sign a deal that guarantees Israel’s right to exist…..but we will never know because after months of looking for a way out of the peace process that does not make them look like a/holes…..they found on.  They can claim moral superiority and go back to raping the land and uprooting Palestinians to make room for more settlements….and all it took was for Palestinians to seek a little unity among the different groups……..

As long as Israel is allowed to dictate what is what….there will NEVER be a peace accord…..and that is what Israel has wanted all long…..