Clear where the blame is

US Secretary of State John Kerry last week came close to blurting out which side is responsible for the impasse in the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis when he told the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to live up to his commitment to free the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners by March 30 puts Israel at the centre of the blame.

Kerry went on to say that the Israeli announcement that it will construct an additional 700 housing units in Jerusalem was for the Palestinians the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Talking about another thorny issue Palestinians are asked to agree to on Israel’s terms even before arriving at an understanding, the US secretary of state was equally reasonable.

He said that while Washington supports recognition of Israel as the homeland for Jews, when this happens and “how it happens, has to be part of the negotiations”.

Kerry emphasised that this Israeli demand should not be made “at the beginning” of the peace talks. 

Putting the cart before the horse is not only illogical, it also beats the purpose of “negotiations”.

There are so many important issues that divide the two camps and that need to be ironed out. Insisting on the Jewishness of Israel is just another ploy of its intransigent far-right government that has no intention of making peace with the Palestinians and no intention of returning Arab lands captured in the 1967 war.

Kerry was uncharacteristically frank about who is to blame for the failure to arrive at peace in the Middle East.

That might jolt the international community out of its comfortable inaction vis-à-vis Israel’s occupation and make it act in accordance with the laws it set itself as parameters for civilised behaviour.

Only by pressuring Israel to comply with international law and the myriad resolutions pertaining to it can be expected to see the logic and the need of signing peace with the Palestinians.

As long as it is allowed to act as an outlaw with impunity, it will have no reason to change its ways.