How Low Can You Go?….asks Michael Kuttner

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When it comes to the Palestinian Arab Authority and now it seems the White House and State Department the depths to which they have sunk has created a new record in cynical behavior of a kind not seen for many years.

Michael Kuttner

The track record of our so called Palestinian Arab peace partners is well known and therefore nothing that they can pull out of their recycled bag of lies should surprise us in the least. The amazing thing however is the number of people who are still seduced by false promises, duplicitous actions and revisionist assertions which roll forth from Ramallah on an almost daily basis. Despite clear and unambiguous proclamations of their real intentions, starry eyed experts, politicians, media and academics alike, continue to be dazzled by a mirage which in reality does not exist.

This week’s excited proclamation by PA officials that blackmailing Israel pays off handsomely is a classic example. Claiming that by threatening Israel with international condemnation the PA has managed to blackmail Israel into releasing more and more murderers of Israeli men, women and children, the real agenda is once more laid bare. Misnamed peace negotiations are only useful so long as Israel can be coerced into making one sided gestures disguised as concessions. The ultimate objective, as made perfectly clear by those in charge, is to drag out the talks until every terrorist is released and more concessions such as building freezes are achieved. A kindergarten child can see through this tactic which by the way has been tried in the past with disastrous results. Wouldn’t one therefore assume that those elected to safeguard the health and welfare of Israeli citizens would be alive to the pathetically deceitful tactics of Abbas and colleagues?

Unfortunately it seems that this is not the case. Instead of a united front against this obscene spectacle of extortion we have all and sundry still singing a hymn of praise for a peace partner who doesn’t exist, making pilgrimages to Amman to hold talks with the monarch of the Hashemite Kingdom (in reality the Palestinian Arab State) whose sordid history of ethnic cleansing and religious intolerance, let alone illegal occupation is conveniently forgotten and whitewashing the most blatant revisionist utterances emanating from our neighbors.

The end result of this induced amnesia is that those in Washington and Brussels, observing how our own politicians and claimed experts are hallucinating, are more than willing and eager to drag us further into the cesspit of morally indefensible actions. The EU does not need to wait for a nod and a blink from Washington. They have a well worn track record of double standards when it comes to the Jewish State and therefore are able to go it alone. However when there is a US Administration which is so pathetically incapable of standing up to dictators, terrorists and heads of Government whose use by date has long ago expired, you have a recipe for cynical manipulation which is unrivalled in recent times.

Witness the latest manifestation of this which one can only make one gasp at its mendacious maliciousness and blatant blindness. The OK team (Obama/Kerry) is determined to pull one foreign policy triumph out of its moth eaten bag and if this means using every dirty trick in the book, every arm twisting move and every lowdown gesture, then by hook or by crook, it will do its utmost to achieve a result which can only lead to more Israelis being murdered and targeted.

How else does one explain the offer to release Jonathan Pollard in exchange for Israel releasing another 400 terrorists and implementing yet another futile building freeze for Jews while ignoring illegal building by the PA? Here we have the ultimate height of hypocrisy as formulated by the Palestinian Arabs and the OK team. Would the USA consider releasing the Boston bomber to those who perpetrated the twin towers outrage in exchange for nothing?

Blackmail on the one hand and crass bribery combined with immoral intentions  on the other hand. Instead of recognizing that the PA has no plan whatsoever to negotiate in good faith for any sort of peace and reconciliation & end to the conflict, Washington blindly, stubbornly and pathetically, comes forward with ideas so nauseating that every single decent person should immediately see what a farce we are engaged in. The only reason I can discern for this charade having reached the stage it has, is because those pushing these morally corrupt policies, believe there are enough Israelis who can be fooled into falling in line.

Holding Jonathan Pollard as a hostage and then using him as a bargaining chip to release murderers is so obscene that it makes one wonder how much lower things can sink. He has already served more time in prison than any other person found guilty of more serious spying charges and his continued incarceration has the whiff of something decidedly rotten about it. We also must consider the question of Kerry’s credibility. Was this idea floated as part of his desperate efforts to save a floundering exercise in futility and has he cleared it with his boss? It would seem not as the White House has distanced itself. Therefore one can assume that this is yet the latest Kerry blooper in a long line of self inflicted foreign policy blunders.

True to form and entirely consistent with their past track record, the PA unilaterally decided to apply for membership of 15 UN agencies with the declared aim of waging a “diplomatic” war against Israel. This action is totally contrary to all promises made, but guess what? The Secretary of State blithely announced that actually the agencies concerned had nothing to do with the UN and urged the parties not to take hasty measures. Anyone with their feet on the ground can easily see that reality bears no resemblance to the unadulterated wishful thinking being articulated by those who are determined not to be confused by the facts. There is ample evidence provided by PA officials themselves to demonstrate the futility of this current circus.

Quite some time ago I predicted the likely scenario which indeed is now unfolding in front of our eyes. Here are the latest PA demands which not only follow the well worn script but effectively scuttle any chances of reaching a genuine peace agreement.

1. A written letter from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which he gives a commitment that the Palestinian state will be established and that its capital will be East Jerusalem.

2. The release of 1,200 terrorists, which the PA says was agreed upon when Ehud Olmert was prime minister. These include multiple-murderer Marwan Barghouti, PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat, and Fuad al-Shubaki, who was responsible for the attempt to smuggle a huge amount of arms into Gaza on board the Karine A.

3. Implementation of the agreement on checkpoints and removal of the siege on Gaza.

4. The return of the Church of Nativity expellees.

5. The granting of full Israeli citizenship to 15,000 Palestinian Arabs in a process of family reunification.

6. A halt to construction in eastern Jerusalem and the reopening of PA institutions there which have been closed down by Israel.

7. No more entry by IDF forces into areas under PA control, no more arrests and eliminations, and the handing over of Area C to PA control.

The bottom line is really very simple. There is no partner for peace and those who think there is are irredeemably delusional.

Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.