You really don't have to be an expert in the recent events of the Middle East to have been able to predict what might happen if yet another round of unwanted Peace talks was imposed on the Palestinians, but then Obama really is no expert. For Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority who is now well overdue in his electoral term, the status quo could hardly have been better. With a freeze on Jews building in the West Bank, Israeli security forces significantly pulled back in Palestinian areas, the Palestinian Economy experiencing unprecedented growth and copious amounts world sympathy, legitimacy and money all flowing in his direction, Abbas really has very little interest in seeking his rather cushy arrangement shaken up. No surprise then that Abbas set so many demands and preconditions before he would be so gracious as to even talk directly with the Israelis. Indeed at one point the Palestinian President's demands were essentially just setting the outcome of the negotiations before they'd even began, something which threatened them ever getting off of the ground in the first place.
Yet a general unwillingness to cooperate with negotiations is the least of problems with brash American attempts to impose negotiations on the two parties. Every round of so called Peace talks in the past has been marred by the murderous campaigns of Palestinian terror groups. And it didn't take miraculous levels of clairvoyance to foresee that the relative quiet Israelis and Palestinians have enjoyed in recent months would be brought to an abrupt end by so called Peace talks clumsily forced by Obama. Yet few could have predicted this intolerably familiar pattern of violence would be resurrected so soon.
Hamas however has wasted no time in attempting to derail even the slim hopes that these talks would succeed. Tuesday saw the grisly attack on an Israeli car near Hebron leading to the murder of the four passengers, including a pregnant woman. And the following day there was yet another shooting on an Israeli civilian vehicle in which two were badly injured. And while the media continues to peddle Palestinian excuses about Jewish settlements the reality is that Jewish settlers have seen normal life in their communities put on hold, the Israeli security measures formerly in place to protect them irresponsibly pulled back and now find themselves sitting targets for Palestinian terrorists desiring to foil attempts for peace.
What Hamas apologists in Britain and elsewhere will make of these attacks and the huge celebratory rallies that have accompanied them in Gaza is anyone's guess, although the capacity of Israel's enemies in the West to attempt to justify the murder of civilians and attack Israel's attempt to defend its population never ceases to amaze. And no doubt also of amazement to many, if only the media were to cover it, would be how in recent days the streets of the Palestinian city Ramallah has witnessed large crowds of Palestinians actually demonstrating against the Peace talks. A dark secret for such news agencies as the BBC.
How much more violence these ill conceived attempts for peace will unleash is hard to tell, but we can only hope that it will not be seen on the same horrendous scale witnessed with Oslo and Camp David.
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