By Ted Belman
According to Akiva Eldar writing in Haaretz,
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The heads of the Palestinian negotiating team and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have expressed opposition to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s efforts to delay negotiations on Jerusalem until the final stages of peace talks between the two sides.
But what really got my attention was this
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A senior European source told Haaretz that the talks’ slow pace and Israel’s foot-dragging on its promises to remove roadblocks and evacuate outposts could lead to the PA’s collapse in a short time.
He said Arab and European donor states conditioned their aid on free movement of people and merchandise in the Palestinian territories.
Forget about most of the spin we read in the press. Olmerts end game is to get within coming months some kind of virtual agreement with Abbas, so he can then call new elections which will be based on this agreement like a referendum. He hopes he can recoup lost public support at least enough to keep himself at the head of the table. He will want to take the initiative from Barak, who might in the end be his primary adversary especially if coming Gaza invasion proves successful. As long a Barak is kept in the Government as a DM who cannot show results Baraks future is not bright. The only way Barak can elevate himself as a serious candidate for PM is to show spectacular successes and till now NADA! This may explain why Olmert has nixed Gaza invasion till now.
My suggestion to all is : that before we all seek external reasons for Israeli incongruence look first for internal Israeli motives, which to my mind is the first stop on trying to figure out what is really going down here.
I would hope that the “slow pace” would change to “no pace”. No movement, nada, gornished. Movement will be allowed when the IDF throws all Arabs from Gaza and then cleanses itself of all redical Muslims in Judea, Samaria, and Eat Jerusalem. Arabs who truthfully pledge their allegience to Israel, may stay and become welcome citizens. This is our home to govern, defend and grow without interference from anyone or any country.
No Israeli government is going to remove the roadblocks or open the Israeli labor market to people who would use the opportunity to murder Jews. The only viable export the Palestinians have on offer… is terror. If the condition for that $7 billion in aid is letting the Palestinians have free access to Israel, that aid is going to be held up for a long time to come.