going through the motions

Does President Obama seriously believe the Israelis and the Palestinians can achieve a peace deal? I doubt it. So what can he possibly hope to achieve by the planned year long peace talks? If the talks fail, as they almost certainly will, Obama will look even lamer than he does now. The only way the talks can succeed is for the US to threaten to dump Israel, by cutting off military and financial aid, unless and until Israel curtails its expansionary settlement building. I just don't see that happening. Obama backed off when Netanyahu called his bluff on settlements last year, and his entire Presidency is characterized by a general lack of backbone.

Unless the Israelis get a super push from the US they will happily continue down the expansionary path. The Israelis will talk and talk and talk. And as they talk the settlements will expand, and more and more Palestinian territory will be occupied and annexed. It's a wonderful stalling tactic for them. If the Palestinians walk out they will say they tried. If the Palestinians make concessions, as they always have, Israel will eventually renege on its part of the bargain. Just as the US broke just about every treaty it ever made with the Indians.

In the unlikely event that Israel's negotiators make concessions, either the Israeli parliament will reject it or the government will have to make war on the settlers. Why should they give up anything when they are winning, with America's continued backing all but guaranteed?

So why are the Palestinians there at all? Well it is only Fatah for a start, the party that lost in the Palestinians' last democratic election. Because Fatah relies on the limited foreign aid it gets to prop itself up. If Fatah walks out that aid is in jeopardy. But even Fatah has its limits. If the temporary partial freeze on settlements is not extended there is no way they can save face with their people. They would be conceding defeat before the process is even begun.

How can there be peace talks when one party continues to wage war? Israel's illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian territory is what the hostilities are all about.

Only the US can put a peaceful stop to Israeli expansion and it simply won't. Israel intends to continue its unrelenting 60 year expansion until every Palestinian is either dead, permanently exiled or confined to concentration camps. The final solution to the Palestinian problem. The Palestinians only hope is for enough foreign military intervention to do at least some damage to Israel. If these hostilites do break out the US will find itself hopelessly trapped in the Israeli camp, and will pay ever more dearly for it.