Opinion Editorials, August 2013

How Can Zionist Martin Indyk Be an Honest Broker in the Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

Japan, Indyk and Negotiations

I will be in Japan giving a series of lectures on Israel-Palestine situation (explaining apartheid, popular resistance, nuclear weapons, and advocating for the only viable sustainable solution: one democratic secular state).  Please tell your Japanese friends that they can find my schedule (in Japanese) at http://qumsiyeh.org/upcomingevents/

Public Negotiations began amid great fanfare in Washington DC. Saeb Ereklat sat next to a war criminal (Tsipi Livni who is responsible for massacre of hundreds of civilians in Gaza) and across from the Israeli lobbyist Indyk (representing the US) after giving up on the requirement (that is part of Oslo and the Road map) for a settlement freeze and settling for informal verbal assurances.   This is the same Erekat who has been fruitlessly “negotiating” for 20 years along the sa,e lines (hence his book titled “Life is negotiations”). It is the same person who the Palestine Papers leaked to AlJazeera was shown giving one after another concession while the Israeli side yawned and asked for more (see http://www.aljazeera.com/palestinepapers/).

But most disturbingly, Abbas and Erekat accepted Martin Indyk as a US key broker in the talks.  Indyk was appointed as US envoy to the “peace process”.  Indyk will broker the deal between Erekat and Livni even though Indyk is a Zionist Jew who was an Israeli lobbyist. Indyk took leave of absence from the Zionist group the Brookings institute in Washington DC. A major funder of this institute is Haim Saban (see more about Saban at http://www.mediamonitors.net/mazin32.html).  Indyk first worked in Washington for the 'Washington Institute for Near East Policy' (WINEP), an offshoot of AIPAC (Israel’s lobby). Indyk did not have US citizenship but this was quickly corrected with a speeded up process of facilitation, nomination, and approval (all in less than two weeks) by President Clinton in order to appoint him (this is rather unberlievable) as US ambassador to Israel. Appointing a lobbyist for a  foreign country as US ambassador to that country is unprecedented. Now appointing a wolf to broker the deal between another wolf and a chicken is quite a feat.  We will see how fast this chicken will get fleeced. 

Ya’alon said, “Releasing prisoners came as a result of choosing a bad option over a worse option… We reached the decision to avoid the worse [option]. Many strategic considerations, which may be revealed in the future, stood behind this, and hence we must go forward with a release of pre-Oslo prisoners.”

Netanyahu said it even more clearly: that he refused to accept borders of 1967 or a settlement freeze and that this move to negotiations is merely to strengthen Israeli positions.

Palestinian Authority police prevent a Palestinian march and attack demonstrators who object to the unilateral decision by Abu Mazen to return to negotiations http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAkYyw3u7c

Analysis: Palestinians should invest in a Plan B By Daoud Kuttab
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=598851

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah & ccun.org.

editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org