Abbas vows to pressure U.S. to stop Israel settlement construction

Reuters writes in his article how the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas expects United States’ intervention in Israel settlement building in the West Bank. Abbas, who wants to negotiate peace talks, states that Israel is “still putting obstacles.” It is stated that the Palestinians called off peace negotiations with Israel shortly after the freeze on the new home building in the settlements expired and resumed.

In response to this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has resisted United States’ influence and rather stated that “the Palestinians should recognize Israel as a Jewish state to secure such a gesture.” At a news conference with the Finnish President Tarja Halonen, Abbas discussed about “Palestinians’ long-standing rejection of that idea, which would amount to a major concession on an issue at the heart of the six-decade old conflict.”

Arab leaders are permitting the United States one month to convince Israel to halt settlement building on “land it has occupied since the 1967 Six-Day war.” Abbas hopes to facilitate the tension between the two countries by discussing with Israel the issues of borders and securities as soon as they halt settlement building.

So then based on Reuters’ article, how can two stubborn nationalities with a strong sense of nationalism having to share a carved up Palestine live in peace? The author emphasizes on the Arabs want to make peace talks and how the Israelis “put obstacles” in the way to prevent such discussions.

Reuters writes in his article that the “heart of the six-decade old conflict” is the Palestinians refusal to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state. According to the Bickerton/Klausner book, A History of The Arab-Israeli Conflict, the basic conflict in Palestine is a clash of two extreme nationalisms. Regardless of the historical origins of the quarrel, the rights and wrongs of the promises and counter-promises, “and the international intervention incident to the Mandate, there are now in Palestine some 650,000 Jews and 1,200,000 Arabs who are dissimilar in their ways of living and, for the time being, separated by political interests which render difficult full and effective political cooperation (UNSCOP’s Plan of Partition with Economic Union of 1947).”
 

(The first Arab-Israeli war enabled the new state of Israel to extend its territory southwards into the Negev desert, eastwards as far as the Dead Sea, and northwards up to the Lebanese border.)

In reaction, Arabs believed that the struggle of the Arabs in Palestine had nothing in common with anti-Semitism. The Arab world had been “one of the rare havens of refuge for the Jews until the atmosphere of neighbourliness had been poisoned by the Balfour Declaration and the aggressive spirit the latter had engendered in the Jewish community (UNO Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestine Question).” The claims of the Zionists had “no legal or moral basis.” The case was based on the association of the Jews with Palestine over two thousand years before. On that basis, the Arabs would have better claims to those territories in other parts of the world such as Spain or parts of France, Turkey, Russia or Afghanistan, which they had inhabited in the past.

Peace negotiations need be discussed as well as discussing borders to facilitate the tensions. As simple as this may sound, it is not. How does one overcome a six-decade of mishaps? Construct more treaties? Get more international involvement? How can there be a peace talk when each side has their own agendas? Each side wants their own land. Hence, the reason why Abbas is so determined to discuss borders because the Arabs want their land back and the reason why the Israelis refuse because they want to keep what they got. A six-decade old grudge between the Israelis and Arabs will prevent them from living in true peace. As many know, people will not change their mentalities unless they want to change.

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” – Jimi Hendrix