TFF PressInfo # 296: The dead end of the post-Oslo diplomacy: What next?
The Latest Diplomatic Gambit
There are reports that the Palestinian Authority will seek a vote in the
Security Council on a resolution mandating Israel’s military withdrawal
from Occupied Palestine no later than November 2016. Such a resolution
has been condemned by the Israeli Prime Minister as bringing ‘terrorism’
to the outskirts of Tel Aviv, and this will never be allowed to happen.
The United States is, as usual, maneuvering in such a way as to avoid
seeming an outlier by vetoing such a resolution, even if it has less
stringent language, and asks the PA to postpone the vote until after the
Israeli elections scheduled for 2015.
Embedded in this initiative are various diversionary moves to put the
dying Oslo Approach (direct negotiations between Israel and the PA,
with the U.S. as the intermediary) on track.
The French want a resolution that includes a revival of these
currently defunct resolutions, with a mandated goal of achieving a
permanent peace within a period of two years based on the establishment
of a Palestinian state, immediate full membership of Palestine in the
UN, and language objecting to settlement activity as an obstruction to
peace.
Overall, European governments are exerting pressure to resume direct
negotiations, exhibiting their concern about a deteriorating situation
on the ground along with a growing hostility to Israeli behavior that
has reached new heights since the merciless 51-day onslaught mounted by
Israel against Gaza last summer.
Richard Falk
