Kerry's possible failure opens new, dark era in peace talks
Even Menachem Begin did not support annexation of West Bank lands.
Diplomacy is a binary endeavor. Either you succeed … or you fail. Even if discussions continue beyond the April 30 target date, when measured against the standard US Secretary of State John Kerry set when he embarked on his now grievously wounded diplomatic effort last July — a final status agreement in nine months — failure is the only honest verdict.
Whatever positive energy the Oslo process unleashed was dissipated long ago. In the late 1990s, I hosted quiet discussions between a prominent leader of the settlement movement and a top Yasser Arafat confidant. Both talked easily about the prospect of two states. My settler friend even commented positively and graciously on his opposite’s qualifications to be Palestine’s first president.
No longer. Rather than consider how to establish a Palestinian state in the wake of the undistinguished US diplomatic effort this last year, the center of gravity in Israel is turning on the question of how much of the West Bank it should annex — a step even Menachem Begin himself explicitly rejected.
Today’s conversation in Israel is being led by Begin’s heirs — right-wing politicians who, emboldened by the current state of affairs, see political value in promoting the expansion of Israeli sovereignty, not its delimitation — a clear, immediate and damaging consequence of Washington’s failed effort.
