Israel and U.S. to coordinate stance on PA unity government

It's all so bloody drearily predictable.

Rice flies into the Middle East, we have a couple of days of "will she, won't she" recognise the Palestinian Authority, and then she surprises no-one by adopting the Israeli position hook, line and sinker.

To give us some indication of where Rice's head is, she is currently holding preparatory meetings ahead of Monday's summit where "Israel and the U.S. agreed that the new Palestinian unity government must be required to abide by the three conditions set by the Quartet: recognizing Israel, renouncing terror and honoring previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements."

According to a government source in Jerusalem, Bush and Olmert "see eye to eye on the need for any future Palestinian government to meet the Quartet's demands."

Olmert now intends that Monday's meeting should be to discuss The Mecca Agreement. You will remember that he previously demanded that the meeting should be about Palestinian terrorism and specifically excluded any discussion of refugees, a return to the 1967 borders or the future status of Jerusalem. In other words a meeting about anything other than how Israel should give back stolen land and abide by international law.

Well, now it appears he's managed to get Rice to agree to discuss The Mecca Agreement, which is only important to Olmert because it manages to push the other, much more important and valid, discussion points off the agenda.

It becomes a sort of sick joke this stuff. Rice will appear on our TV screens and we will be told that she's attempting to mediate peace in the Middle East conflict; when, in reality, she's doing no such thing. She's attending a meeting, on an Israeli agenda, that will discuss anything other than what really matters in bringing an end to this dispute.

With Gaza and the West Bank reeling under US, EU and Israeli inspired sanctions - imposed because they had the temerity to vote for a government that Israel disapproved of - Rice will discuss what's wrong with the Palestinian government and how they may reform themselves in a way that Israel finds palatable. Of course Rice, either through naivety or compliance, is simply signing up to an Israeli game of musical chairs, the whole point of which is to avoid any serious negotiations. The Israelis are past masters at this. They have managed for the last forty years to find ways to discuss anything other than Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem or a return to the 1967 borders. And successive US administrations have enabled them to do this whilst simultaneously insisting that Israel is serious about seeking peace and that their Palestinian counterparts are somehow to blame for the lack of progress. If only the Palestinians would do/comply with X then this whole matter could be resolved.

Of course, X is a moveable feast, that changes and bends depending upon how near the Palestinians get to complying with it.

X is best summed up in this case, by the additional condition that the Israelis have suddenly added to their claim that the new Palestinian Authority must "recognise Israel":

According to the government source, Israel will insist that any diplomatic progress be conditioned on the Palestinian unity government not only accepting the Quartet's conditions, but also acting on them.

And, Israel's interpretation of whether or not the new Palestinian Authority Unity government are "acting on" the Quartet's conditions is really simply a wonderful elastic band, that Israel can pull and twang at her will; insisting that she really, really would love to negotiate but that, sadly, her Palestinian counterparts are not complying and are, therefore, obviously not as serious about seeking peace as the Israelis are.

So Rice, like so many of her former US counterparts, flies into the Middle East, ostensibly to make progress, but in reality hampered because she has bought into an Israeli game plan that ensures that progress is actually impossible.

The trilateral summit will convene Monday morning in the David's Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, where Rice and her entourage are staying, and last a few hours. No joint press conference is planned for afterward, in order to avoid making a public display of the expected differences of opinion.

At a time when people are trying to cut down their air travel in order to avoid global warming one really has to ask why the Hell she's even gone there. They are announcing the failure of the summit before it's even begun. And it will fail, because that is the entire purpose of the Israeli agenda.

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Tags: Israel, Palestine, Rice