Sunday Roundup - April 27, 2014

This is the weekly selection of news and opinion from outside the US mainstream media.  Today we look at the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and, in brief, the ongoing Republican efforts to deny affordable health insurance to Americans, Jon Stewart's take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown, the states-led effort to decide the Presidency on the basis of the national popular vote, and the giant Antarctic iceberg that is now entering the open seas.

Israelis Walk Away from the Table

From the antiwar.com website

The Israeli walk-out comes as no surprise but is still something of a disappointment.  The Kerry-driven peace talks were going nowhere and were scheduled to end later this month.  The incredible "reason" the Israelis gave for abandoning the talks a few days early was the reconciliation agreement between Hamas and Palestinian Authority.  After continuing to build illegal settlements on Palestinian land in the midst of the peace talks, after demanding that the Palestinian authority abandon the Palestinian right of return and acknowledge Israel as a "Jewish state", after reneging on the fourth and final round of freeing Palestinian prisoners, the Israelis decided that they had had enough.  So the Kerry talks are dead and Palestinians may need to turn to international organizations such as the International Criminal Court for justice and statehood.

Juan Cole, in an Informed Comment post on April 24, writes of the move that prompted the Israeli withdrawal from the talks:  This week the Fateh Party (secular Arab nationalist) of Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas met in Gaza with members of the Hamas Party (fundamentalist Muslim), seeking a reconciliation and a government of national unity.  The two sides agreed that in 5 weeks a government of national unity will be appointed by Mahmoud Abbas. There will then be new elections for a president and parliament, to be held no later than 6 months after the new government is sworn in.  Cole reminds us of something seldom mentioned in the Western press - the reason the two sections of Palestine are politically separated: In January 2006, the fundamentalist Hamas Party won the parliamentary elections. This outcome was not acceptable to Israel and the Bush administration, and they connived with the secular Palestine Liberation Organization to overthrow the Hamas government in the West Bank, in which they succeeded. A similar attempt at a coup in the Gaza Strip failed, however. Gradually journalists and politicians have forgotten who was elected and who made the coup, so that you often see the Hamas government in Gaza described as the one that came to power by force. Rather, it is the remnant of the decision the electorate made in 2006.  In 2007 Israel put Gaza under a severe blockade, including its civilian population, which has destroyed the economy, created massive unemployment, and caused a majority of families to be food insecure. It is illegal for an Occupying power to impose collective punishment on a civilian population for which it has responsibility.

Water shortage in the Gaza Strip -  PressTV file photo

Zvi Bar'el writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz asks why the Palestinian reconciliation is driving the Israeli government into a panic, pointing out the contradictions inherent in Israel's refusal to engage in dialogue with Hamas.  The discussions with the PLO that led to the Oslo Accords were begun when the PLO was defined as a terrorist organization and had not recognized Israel.   Another contradiction in Israeli policy is that they objected to talks with Hamas "because it was a terror group and served as an Iranian agent in the region. But when Hamas cut itself off from Iran and moved to join the PLO, Israel used it as an excuse to stop the peace negotiations with the Palestinians and blame Abbas for the talks’ collapse."  Bar'el sums up the situation: The reconciliation will lead Hamas and Islamic Jihad into coalition with the PLO, making them an inseparable part of the formal framework that signed the Oslo agreements. It is possible of course that the new PLO will move to revoke these agreements unilaterally. But so far no inclination has been reported on Hamas’ part to condition its joining the PLO on revoking the agreements.  On the contrary, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has stated that there is no contradiction between the peace talks and the reconciliation agreement. This could indicate an agreement between Fatah and Hamas to maintain the peace talks, as [Hamas po;itical leader] Meshal made clear already in 2012, when the basic reconciliation agreement between the two movements was ratified.  The dilemma that Abbas has laid at the US and Israeli doorstep is this: If they want to advance a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, they cannot demand to neutralize Hamas and at the same time claim that Abbas does not represent all of the Palestinians.  Israel is expected to cut ties with the unity government and the US will likely turn a cold shoulder towards it.  Bar'el concludes: the European Union and Arab states, most of which support the reconciliation, will have to make a decision. Will they allow some 5 million Palestinians to be left with no services, no funds and no hope of a political horizon, or will they take this opportunity to shape reality in the Middle East, rather than merely observe from the side?

Who knows?  Perhaps a break in the talks will lead each side to reconsider its position and maybe peace and justice will eventually come to all in that troubled land.  The makings of an agreement are clear. Palestinians, including Hamas, recognize Israel and renounce the use of violence in their pursuit of statehood.  Israel stops taking land from the Palestinians, removes the blockade on Gaza, and drops the demand that it be recognized as Jewish state (or somehow guarantee the Palestinian right of return in a Jewish state).  Until an agreement on the final borders of a viable Palestinian state can be reached, the Arab League and Europe step up and support the Palestinians.  They have been stateless since 1948.  It's long past the time when they are due some justice.

Links
A new comprehensive UN report on the situation in the Gaza Strip says the besieged territory will not be “livable” in 2020 unless immediate action is taken to improve the humanitarian situation there. [PressTV, April 25]

Americans for Peace Now statement on the pause in discussions [APN website, April 25]

In Brief
Back in February, news broke of Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's efforts to make sure that no governor of Georgia could ever decide to take Medicaid expansion, giving the legislature veto power over any future governor's decision to do so. But it's not just Deal. Kansas's Gov. Sam Brownback (R) is doing it too.  Georgia and Kansas have left a combined 487,000 residents uncovered under Obamacare because they refused to expand Medicaid. And, though the law remains unpopular, a recent poll found that majorities of Georgians (54 percent) and Kansans (55 percent) support Medicaid expansion. [Daily Kos, April 22]

New York has become the latest state to join an agreement that would transform the U.S. presidential election. Under the compact for a National Popular Vote, states across the country have pledged to award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote. [Democracy Now, April 17]

Jon Stewart's hilarious take on the Cliven Bundy ranch showdown [Daily Kos, April 22]

And our climate change article of the week comes from Reuters: Scientists are monitoring an iceberg roughly six times the size of Manhattan - one of the largest now in existence - that broke off from an Antarctic glacier and is heading into the open seas.  [Reuters, April 23]