Trilateral meeting between Barack Obama, Benyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas

[chitchat]

Bismillah al-Rahman al-Raheem

Political Comment

The events related to the issue of Palestine gathered momentum after the trilateral meeting between Barack Obama, Benyamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas in New York, which clearly ended in a stalemate. It seems that the American administration wanted to announce the gridlock in the Middle East peace process in order to proceed towards solving the Palestinian issue by exhausting the “Israeli” rightwing and bringing the Kadima party back to power, but only once the ruling rightwing government executes what it is more capable of achieving in terms of actions that enhance the peace process.

Hence, it was noted that politicians and media outlets had been given free rein to announce the failure of the meeting and generate an atmosphere of glumness among the people who are still enduring the worst conditions and deliberate harassments. Aaron David Miller, a former U.S.-Middle East negotiator told Politico magazine: “To all but the interminably obtuse, the prospects of a conflict-ending solution between this Israeli government and this Palestinian Authority are slim to none.” The head of the Hamas movement’s politburo Khaled Mashaal expressed his views on the three-way meeting by saying: “The meeting between Abbas, Obama and Netanyahu was humiliating and shameful.”

The purpose of generating the atmosphere of pessimism and glumness among the people of Palestine in particular is to provoke them to undertake escalatory actions against the Jewish entity that would lead to imposing a fait accompli, especially as the current Israeli government is paralyzed and unable to execute the agreements of the roadmap and to dismantle the settlements in the West Bank. This paralysis is caused by its deep embarrassment before the rightwing electorate and by its fragile makeup since Kadima refused to join it. The former head of the Israeli national Security Council, Giora Eiland, expressed the paralysis of the current “Israeli” government explicitly in his testimony before the official inquiry commission on the handling of the settlers evacuated from Gush Katif by saying: "On the level of the state, is the state capable, yes or no, of taking steps which are certainly politically controversial - the answer is certainly not. We are a neutralized country. What, that isn't clear?"

It was also noted after the return of president Mahmoud Abbas from Washington that the tone was alien to the theme of peace. Abbas started calling for the necessity to protect al-Aqsa Mosque, saying that it was facing the threat of collapse due to the excavation works carried out by the “Israelis” underneath it. Khaled Mashaal for his part called for a review of the Arab and Palestinian strategy by saying: “We have had enough of offering initiatives and expecting solutions from others.” He added: “What is required is to hold on to the land, al-Quds and our rights; the resistance movement, our people and our Ummah would not accept any compromise on the land, al-Quds, the sanctities and the right of return.”

The statements of Mahmoud Abbas and other officials and the calls they made to the Arabs, the Muslims and the international community, warning them of what the Jews are concocting against al-Aqsa Mosque, coupled with the moves undertaken by the Muslims of the 1948 region to join the rebellions of the residents of Al-Quds and its surroundings against the extremely provocative practices of the Jews are designed to raise the stakes of the al-Quds file and turn it into an international burning issue rather than a mere local and regional concern. Hence, the furtherance of the escalation in al-Quds, especially the recent incidents of al-Aqsa and the ensuing events, are designed to achieve two main aims:

1 - Procuring a resolution from the Israeli rightwing government to separate the Arab quarters in what is called East Jerusalem, under the pretext of the security threat and the necessity to protect the citizens of the state, through making the Jews sense that this region is a powder keg that could explode anytime. Hence America would achieve through the current rightwing government a consolidated separation of al-Quds, which the rightwing electorate in particular wish to keep it as the unified and perpetual capital of the so-called state of “Israel”. The current “Israeli” rightwing government will deceive the electorate by erecting the separation wall in al-Quds under the pretext of security, just like what Sharon did under the same pretext when he established the borders of the Jewish entity with the encouragement and blessing of the former Bush administration.

2 – Resurrecting the idea of internationalising the holy precincts under the pretext that they are threatened and in need of international protection. The Qatari Asharq newspaper wrote on 29 September: “The protection of al-Aqsa Mosque against destruction and Judaisation is the most important duty of the Muslims and the whole world. The intervention of the world community’s organisations, especially the Organisation of Islamic Conference and the Security Council, has become importunate to put an end to the crimes of the Israeli occupation, which target the first Qiblah and third holy mosque. The developments on the ground necessitates from the OIC and al-Quds Committee to fulfil the duty of protecting al-Aqsa Mosque and to convene at the earliest opportunity to debate the developments and to call for an international conference to protect the holy city.”

The escalation in al-Quds in particular, with the anger of the people of Palestine in general, in addition to the outrage of the Arab and non-Arab Muslims – whose rulers will allow them to express their anger – will provide Fatah and Hamas with another justification to sign the reconciliation agreement between the two movements, which will take place this month in Cairo. With the omens of a third intifada looming, they are compelled to sign an agreement on the minimum level of understanding with utmost speed because voices are growing louder and pressures are mounting demanding from both sides to give the national reconciliation the priority and to speed up its achievement. Such demands were echoed in Palestine by a large number of independent Palestinian figures, intellectuals and “civil society” representatives in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Khaled Mashaal said for his part during a speech he delivered on 2 October at the Citadel of Damascus: “Despite the pain, we have no other choice but reconciliation in order to arrange our Palestinian household. We have already made considerable offers in order to place the train of reconciliation on the tracks and everyone knows that Hamas and other allied factions have pumped new blood into the reconciliation.”

As for the postponement of the vote on the Goldstone report and the discrediting of the Palestinian Authority leadership by exposing their compliance and implication in the postponement of the vote, this is designed to achieve two aims:

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