two-obama-vets-explain-just-how-anti-israel-their-daniel-greenfield

May 3, 2017

It's not Hady Amr and Ilan Goldenberg's intent to clarify just how anti-Israel their negotiating position was. Their plan was to lay out "guidelines" for Trump for his meeting with Islamic terror boss Abbas.

It just so happens so that these guidelines carefully illustrate just how toxic the Kerry negotiating approach that they were part of was.
If you want it in a few words. "Abbas' PLO is fine. Israel needs to make lots of concessions."
It goes without saying that Israel shouldn't expect anything for these concessions. Also that previous concessions that Israel made, including under Kerry, are a dead issue. And Israel shouldn't expect to get anything in return for those either.
Here we go.

"Thus far, the administration’s approach has exceeded expectations. Fears that Trump would quickly move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and declare open season for Israeli settlement construction have not materialized."

This is praise you really don't want.
But, as a dog returns to its vomit, the leftoplats return to the same old chant. Give the terrorist stuff. He faces domestic political pressure. He can't be expected to walk away from negotiations for nothing. Give him something first. Lots of somethings. Hopefully things that can be used to murder Israelis.

"Trump may look for a big breakthrough on a final peace agreement and use their meeting to ask Abbas to resume negotiations. This would be unwise and is unlikely to work. For Abbas, going back to negotiations with the Israelis comes with a major cost. After nearly 25 years of failure, the Palestinian public considers negotiations as purely an excuse by the Israelis to buy time while they continue to build settlements and perpetuate the occupation... To go back into negotiations, Abbas will need a high-profile concession from Netanyahu that he can sell. But given the power of the far-right wing of the Israeli governing coalition, Netanyahu will not be able to take such a step."

Now, despite that, Netanyahu doesn't need to take anything to the Israeli people. It's only the terrorist boss who needs concessions.

And, "the Palestinian public considers negotiations as purely an excuse by the Israelis to buy time while they continue to build settlements and perpetuate the occupation". For the "Palestinian public", read Hady Amr and Ilan Goldenberger.

They're one and the same.

The United States may try to sweeten the deal for Israel by leveraging the converging interests that Israel and the Arab States share in pushing back on Iran. The hope would be to get the Arabs to start publicly engaging with Israel, which would be politically helpful for Netanyahu, in exchange for Netanyahu making concessions to the Palestinians. But this formula is also unlikely to work. The Arab States are already getting the security cooperation they want from Israel and are happy to keep it quiet. They would need to see serious steps from the Israelis on the Palestinian front to take the risk of going public — steps that are again not possible given the right wing government in Israel.

So Israel shouldn't expect public engagement either. Or anything.

Trump should instead seek a series of smaller steps from all sides that improve the quality of life for Israelis and Palestinians on the ground

By all sides, they mean Israel.
And by quality of life for Israelis and Palestinians, Amr and Goldenberg mean Palestinians. And improving the quality of life for the Muslim settlers who call themselves "Palestinians" means making it easier for them to kill Israelis.

"Importantly, he should not make steps by the Israelis contingent on steps from the Palestinians, or vice versa. Don’t get drawn into negotiating between the two sides. Just individually work with both sides and get them to each take positive steps, unilaterally."

Which is certainly convenient because the PLO won't be doing anything. And Israel won't be able to protest that the PLO isn't doing anything. Because it's "unilateral". Israel is expected to make concessions to the terrorists regardless of whether they make any concessions.
The Goldenberg/Amr plan is for Israel to turn over land to the PLO, improve its economy and build a gas pipeline to Hamas in Gaza. After a few paragraphs of that, we get the other side.

"Israelis also seek an end to what Netanyahu described as Palestinian “call[s] for Israel’s destruction inside their schools, inside their mosques, inside their textbooks.”

While Hady Amr and Ilan Goldenberg state concessions to the PLO in their own voices, when it comes to Israel, this just becomes a claim that Netanyahu makes. Also, Amr and Goldbenberg assure us that the PLO leadership is already doing pretty well on incitement and their textbooks are just fine.
Nothing to see here folks.
The minor problem that the PLO is a terrorist organization and that it continues paying the salaries of terrorists today, celebrating terrorists and honoring them on a constant basis is an inconvenient fact that Amr and Goldenberg will pretend doesn't exist.
This was the Obama peace process policy. Now it's what his minions would like Trump to adopt. Blame Israel for everything. Demand endless concessions from Israel. Expect nothing from the terrorists. And offer a constant stream of excuses for them.