Word: palestinian
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...Despite their fears, Netanyahu's settlement freeze may actually help save the homes of the very people demonstrating against him. Already, the Israeli Prime Minister has used his gesture to blame the deadlock in the peace process on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who despite U.S. prodding has refused to restart peace talks as long as settlement construction continues in East Jerusalem. (Netanyahu has exempted Jerusalem from his freeze, claiming all of the Holy City as Israel's and refusing to negotiate over its status...
...Having deflected international pressure on the Palestinian front, Netanyahu hopes to focus U.S. attention on dealing with what he believes is the real threat to Israeli security: Iran. He cites Iran's support of Hamas as reason to avoid relinquishing Israeli control over the West Bank, whose hilltops are well within rocket range of Israel's main cities. Israeli officials are hinting that if President Obama doesn't demonstrate rapid progress in his diplomatic efforts to shut down Tehran's nuclear program, he should step aside and let Israel's air force...
...even as the Israelis focus on the perceived threat from Iran, time is rapidly running out for a two-state solution to the conflict with the Palestinians. Frustrations are running high among Palestinians, who have watched two decades of negotiation with the Israelis bring them no closer to statehood. A latticework of Israeli security zones and settlements makes nonsense of the territorial integrity of the West Bank, while a ring of Israeli-controlled space is forming around East Jerusalem, without control of which no Palestinian or Arab leader will be able to accept any peace agreement. Not surprisingly, then, Palestinian...
Given the impasse in Israeli-Palestinian talks, the U.S. has various options. It could table its own comprehensive peace plan. It could change its focus to brokering a deal between Israel and Syria. Or it could vastly reinvigorate the effort to build up Palestinian institutions on the West Bank as part of a step-by-step progression toward peace. Working with special envoy Tony Blair and the private sector, the U.S. could again help build economic institutions, learning and job centers, industrial free-trade zones and youth programs. It would not require a lot of money; it could be done...
...resolve than they may appear. In the process, Fayyad and Abbas would be shored up. The next step would be tackling trading arrangements, water rights and other practical matters. The thornier ideological issues that go to the heart of each side's conflicting narrative - the right of return of Palestinian refugees and sovereignty over Jerusalem - could be saved until later. So, too, could the question of Gaza, whose citizens would then be presented with the stark choice of continuing to support Hamas or embracing the peace and prosperity enjoyed by their brethren in the West Bank. And President Obama could...