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Palestine and Israel on Monday appeared to have accepted that their peace talks are on the verge of collapsing as the deadline for the negotiation expires soon, with a breakthrough nowhere in sight. After a year’s worth of intensive diplomacy by US Secretary of State John Kerry, with the aim of brokering an agreement by April 29, the United States’ patience appears to have worn thin as well, and both Palestine and Israel have distanced themselves from the talks.
Speaking to international figures in a closed meeting, Kerry reportedly said that if Israel does not seize the opportunity to make peace, it risks becoming an “apartheid state”. According to a transcript of the meeting obtained by The Daily Beast, Kerry said that “a two-state solution will be clearly underscored as the only real alternative. Because a unitary state winds up either being an apartheid state with second class citizens —- or it ends up being a state that destroys the capacity of Israel to be a Jewish state”.
Although the negotiations were at a point of “confrontation and hiatus”, Kerry insisted that they were not dead. However, both Israelis and Palestinians appear to have taken a decision on their stance in the talks, which have made very little progress since they started nine months ago. Palestinian leaders in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and in West Bank last week announced a unity deal aimed at ending the rivalry between the two. Israel had denounced the deal, calling it a deathblow to the peace talks between Palestine and Israel, and said that it would not deal with any government supported by the Islamist movement.
Under their agreement, the Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) will establish a new unity government comprising of political independents, headed by President Mahmud Abbas. The deal would recognize Israel, abide by existing agreements and renounce violence. However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out all negotiations with a new government unless Hamas accepts Israel.
