Drumbeats of War - Peace Postponed
The meeting in Washington between Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and Palestinian President (or Acting Chief, as some call him) Abbas is over.
They agreed to meet again.
That’s about it.
It’s being spun by participants as a diplomatic success because neither side walked out.
Or one might say it was a total failure, because they left the meeting with absolutely nothing changed. Abbas absolutely requires Israel to continue the building moratorium: Netanyahu absolutely refuses to extend it. And of course Hamas, elected as the legal government of the Palestinians in a free and clean election January 26, 2006, was not invited, which many in the Middle East say absolutely dooms the talks no matter what agreements might be reached.
Perhaps the biggest semi-event of the day was Iran’s Foreign Minister calling the Egyptians ‘traitors’ for being part of the official kick-off in Washington. The Egyptians went ballistic at that, in a diplomatic way, and have called for a ‘clarification’ and have canceled some meetings with Iran. Unfortunately, there is a segment of the Egyptian people who would say the same thing as the Iranians.
No additional drive-by killings on the West Bank today. I guess today was a pretty good day after all.
Stay tuned for the next post, Will Quds Day Be War Day?
