Timelines to Peace

For an Administration that rightfully refuses to allow timelines and deadlines dictate foreign policy on Iraq, President Bush and his diplomats are sure blowing it with announcing a timeline for a peace deal.

They want a peace deal by the end of next year. Sounds great on paper.

It's also the only place that there will be peace because the Palestinians have repeatedly shown themselves incapable and unwilling of stopping incitement and violence towards Israel.

How about looking at the facts on the ground. Palestinians don't want a two-state solution. Hamas certainly doesn't - and they're in control in Gaza. They'd be in control of the West Bank but for the massive aid given the kleptocrats in Fatah, who also seek Israel's destruction but only on a much longer time frame.

Of course, one can say that the US and Israelis know the Palestinians will never agree to any deal, and this deal takes the pressure off them to act as the negotiations can now continue apace, but the fact remains that every time the Israelis come to one of these diplomatic events, they're asked to make still more concessions all while Palestinian failures to fulfill their obligations are overlooked and ignored.

All this will catch up with the Palestinians at some point. At some point, the Palestinians will be made accountable. It doesn't look like the Bush Administration or Israel under PM Olmert are going to do it.

UPDATE:
Charles at LGF notes that the Palestinians are up to their usual tricks. Palestinian TV - a wholly owned and operated function of Fatah and the Palestinian Authority - ran a map of the region showing Palestine where Israel once existed.

What happened to the two-state solution and requirement under Oslo to cease and desist from delegitimizing Israel in Palestinian media? It's yet another unfulfilled obligation that the diplomats ignore.

UPDATE:
More mortars were fired at Israel today. I have a suggestion to the negotiators of the farcical peace process.

If they want to negotiate a peace deal, they must do so in Sderot. Let them know what it is like to be living under constant worry that mortars or kassams will come raining down from Gaza. They are so disconnected from the reality on the ground that it threatens the health and welfare of Israelis and Palestinians.