By Nicola Nasser*
The critical issue of the ever expanding illegal Israeli
colonial settlements on the
On July 29, 2013, those negotiations were resumed in
According to Albert Einstein, "doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different results" is "insanity," but that is
exactly what John Kerry seems to have achieved after six tours of shuttle
diplomacy in the
Unless the issue of settlements is addressed in accordance
with international and humanitarian law as well as in compliance with the
resolutions of the United Nations, Kerry will be shooting himself in the legs
and his success in his peace mission would be worse than his failure. The EU's
recent anti-settlement move highlighted this fact.
However, Kerry seems and sounds determined to pursue his
mission on the basis of contradictory terms of reference, laid down by the official
letter sent by the former U.S. president George W. Bush to former Israeli
premier Ariel Sharon in April 2004, whereby the United States pledged to annex
the major Jewish settlements to Israel, to redraw its borders accordingly and to
exclude the right of return of Palestinian refugees from any agreement in the
future on solving the Arab -- Israeli conflict in Palestine peacefully.
Top on the agenda of the
resumed negotiations are borders and security; Israel has never defined its borders
nor respected the borders set by the United Nations resolution No. 181 of 1947;
in the name of security, it demands borders that compromise the viability of
any independent Palestinian state on the WB.
From U.S. and Israeli perspectives, "the resumption of
negotiations is seen as an objective in itself," in the words of Ghassan
al-Khatib, the former spokesman of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
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