Israel + one

Of course, they need the PA and Abbas on board to pursue their farcical negotiations rigmarole. Therefore, we have 'Haaretz' reporting that Bibi is going to seek cabinet or governmental approval for a ten month suspension of the construction in the West Bank. Well, it won't be difficult to illegally break the freeze in the illegal construction and, not to worry, it's only going to be for ten months and anyway, we are talking about the West Bank here and not East Jerusalem.

Oh, on the last point, 'Haaretz' reports that Washington's position is still unclear. Are they going to object to the continued colonising and ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians, after all, want as the capital of their future state? The mind really boggles; shouldn't Washington be getting itself in line with international law and is there nobody on Capital Hill who has actually read UN Security Council Resolution 242? The position, of course, that America should be taking, but isn't, is that all not only is the continued building of settlements against international law but also the occupation itself is illegal. Now, what a welcome addition they would be to the negotiations if "Uncle Sam" adopted that stance, the legal stance. Of course, that won't happen and for the foreseeable future we are going to have weakened and generally weak Palestinian negotiation teams "negotiating" with Israel + one!