After decades of subterfuge in which Israel agreed to stop building settlements, i.e., stop colonizing Palestinian lands, and then proceeded to do so, the Palestinians have just had enough.
Abbas insists on settlement freeze
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has called on Israel to freeze all settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem so that stalled peace talks between the two sides can resume.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Friday in New York, Abbas insisted the move was necessary in order to “salvage” the Middle East peace process.
Abbas said that Israel’s continued building of settlements “will undermine the goal of establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state”.
“How is it conceivable that negotiations can be held on borders and Jerusalem when Israeli bulldozers are working to change the reality on the ground with the aim of creating a new reality and imposing borders as Israel desires?
Well after the deceptions of Oslo, Camp David/Taba, and the Bush Road Map, none of which stopped Israeli building on Palestinian land, who can blame the Palestinians.
