Is that really why a peace settlement hasn’t been negotiated in the last 20 years…or is it more likely that this is the problem?:

In December 2006, Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the PA, declared that the PA will never recognize Israel: “We will never recognize the usurper Zionist government and will continue our jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem.”

That was in 2006….but just a few days ago things hadn’t changed:

Hamas won’t recognise Israel

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Hamas will never recognise Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement’s deputy leader.

Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzuq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank, would never agree to recognise Israel.

“We will not recognise the Zionist entity,” he said at a press conference in Gaza City

Recognising Israel is one of the key conditions laid out in the 2003 peacemaking roadmap of the Middle East Quartet, which brings together the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia.

The other two key demands are a renunciation of violence and acceptance of all prior agreements with Israel.

 

 

And considering the Israelis suspended talks because Fatah joined up with Hamas you might think that was the real problem:

The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, accused the western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, of forming an alliance with Hamas, which he called “a terrorist organisation that calls for the destruction of Israel” – and hinted at further retaliatory measures.

“What has happened is a great reverse for peace, because we had hoped the Palestinian Authority [PA] president Abbas would embrace the Jewish state, the idea of two nation states, Palestinian one and a Jewish one,” Netanyahu told NBC. “But instead, he took a giant leap backward.”

“If Abbas is back to doing business with an organisation that refuses to recognise Israel and believes in armed resistance, one cannot blame the Israeli government for abandoning the peace process.”

 

 

And yet Bowen thinks the major problem is the Settlements…Settlements are an issue but not the major one bearing in mind that the Palestinians have agreed to exchange settlements for other land handed over by Israel.

The problems are much deeper than the shallow, simplistic accusations Bowen makes in his Tweets…it’s a very selective choice of what was in the Ynetnews article in which the American’s attitude was called into question.

The US did indeed try and blame the settlement issue for a failure of talks:

The American version of why the current round of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians failed is fundamentally different to the one presented by Israeli officials. The list of those to blame for this failure is also very different. From the US perspective, the issue of the settlements was largely to blame.

 

You can get an inkling of the US attitude to Israel, apart from Obama not seeming personally interested, in this comment by one of the American team:

“One of the Palestinians who participated in the talks told an Israeli participant: ‘You don’t see us. We’re transparent, we’re hollow.’ He had a point. After the second intifada ended and the separation barrier was built, the Palestinians turned into ghosts in the eyes of the Israelis – they couldn’t see them anymore.”

Ynet: It almost sounds like you wish for an intifada.

“Quite the opposite, it would be a tragedy. The Jewish people are supposed to be smart; it is true that they’re also considered a stubborn nation. You’re supposed to know how to read the map: In the 21st century, the world will not keep tolerating the Israeli occupation. The occupation threatens Israel’s status in the world and threatens Israel as a Jewish state.”

However, earlier in the interview one said: “I guess we need another intifada to create the circumstances that would allow progress.”

 

Ynet: The world is being self-righteous. It closes its eyes to China’s takeover of Tibet, it stutters at what Russia’s doing to Ukraine.

“Israel is not China. It was founded by a UN resolution. Its prosperity depends on the way it is viewed by the international community.”

 

Not quite sure why the way Israel was created is relevant…either it is a sovereign, legitimate nation or it isn’t, regardless of its origin.

 

The American team give a version of events that favours only the Palestinians and damns the Israelis…here even when Abbas rejects the deal it’s still the Israeli’s fault:

He was willing to give the process one final chance, but found, according to him, that he has no partner on the Israeli side. His legacy won’t include a peace agreement with Israel.

“In February, Abbas arrived at a Paris hotel for a meeting with Kerry. He had a lingering serious cold. ‘I’m under a lot of pressure,’ he complained. ‘I’m sick of this.’ He rejected all of Kerry’s ideas. A month later, in March, he was invited to the White House. Obama presented the American-formulated principles verbally – not in writing. Abbas refused.

“The claim on your side that Abbas was avoiding making decisions is not true. He wasn’t running away, he was just stuck.”

 

Not Abbas’ fault at all then.

 

No wonder Bowen wants to draw attention to this interview…unattributed by name to anyone…just ‘the team’of American negotiators beating up on Israel….bearing in mind their boss, John Kerry, used the phrase ‘apartheid state’ in relation to Israel.

Question is why would Bowen like to point to the Settlements as the major issue rather than Hamas’ refusal to recognise Israel and its stated desire to wipe Israel off the map?