The sarcasm, rage, and deep sadness of Raviv Drucker

Raviv Drucker pontificating

The show of collapsing Israeli/Palestinian negotiations continues till the bitter end. Most people agree that the key words in the previous sentence are "The show of collapsing" and not the rest, and the bitter end in question will be a renewal of the negotiation drudgery at the last moment, after appropriate fanfares and compliments to all participating actors.

Meanwhile, the discussion slowly but surely focuses on the guilty parties in the above mentioned "collapse show". And here I have to tell you a story. You see, I happen to have a car. Not a very good one and, frankly, I didn't use it for quite a long time, not being totally sure that all the parts are inside and that the brakes work - well, you know how it is with very old and unused cars. Besides, there is a small issue of ownership, quite an ancient one and I'm really not in the mood to go into the sordid details. Suffice to say that it's a murky story.

Anyhow, my neighbor (let's call him Mr Jones for the purpose) had his eyes on the car for some time. And when a year or so ago he approached me for the tenth time, practically begging me to sell the car, I have relented. We have agreed that during the coming year, Jones will pay me the amount of ... in four installments. The car will pass to him after the fourth one is paid out in full.

During the first 10 months of that year everything was nice and peachy. Jones, to my surprise, came up with the first three payments (he is a thrifty fellow). But then... the truth is that some thorny issues of ownership I mentioned before came up again. And besides, my heart is not easy with that sale. Who knows, maybe I sold it too cheap... So I said to Jones that the deal is, most probably, off. But that he should still come up with that last payment, because, you know, a deal is a deal...

And imagine this: that bastard Jones refuses to pay! He has the chutzpa to claim that, since I don't want to go through with the sale, the fourth payment is off. And not only that, he demands the rest of the money back! Besides, he has the temerity to threaten me with all kinds of actions and words like "I shall clean his clock" were heard by other neighbors...

Why did I tell you this story? Cause there is another one that is roughly similar to it. It is the story of the fourth group of the Palestinian prisoners that was to be released recently. The refusal of Israeli government to release them caused no end of heartburn to many people, including one Raviv Drucker, an Israeli journalist. Lisa Goldman helpfully translated his Hebrew article, titled The 'outrageous hypocrisy' of Tzipi Livni & Yair Lapid into English. She also helpfully added that the tone of the article is that of "sarcasm, rage, and deep sadness". This is what Mr Drucker says about the abominable behavior of Bibi:

In return, the delighted Netanyahu committed “only” to the release of Palestinian prisoners. And then he simply did not release the fourth round of prisoners. Why? Just because. Because he felt like it.

Just felt like it? Indeed?

Lisa Goldman says about Raviv Drucker: "He’s one of my favorites, because he’s supremely well informed, doesn’t suffer fools...". Yeah. I guess that the latter comes to him naturally, cause he is afraid of competition.

It looks like, with the usual feeling of superiority, so typical for a TV personality, Mr Drucker considers his public to be even bigger fools. Because the truth is more in line with the car story. It is a solid fact that for a few months before the current "collapse show" Abu Mazen aka Mahmoud Abbas was trumpeting the failure of negotiations and beating self on the chest, declaring that he will not agree to an extension of same.

So now you see why I told you that long and stupid story about the car? Whatever I think about the Israeli government (the words "the Israeli government" probably exhaust my list of printable words on this subject), the refusal to go through with the release of that fourth group of murderers is totally justified. Not a shadow of a doubt whatsoever.

As for the crapola, produced in quantities by Mr Drucker and people who sympathize with him - well, pull the other one. Unfortunately, US Secretary of State happens, apparently, to use the same memory card. Too bad - for all of us.

A few quotes from a few sane people on same subject.

A couple hours before Israel's government was going to vote on a deal to extend talks with the Palestinians til 2015 (which included concessions on prisoners & 'settlements' as an incentive to Palestinians to keep them talking) Abbas intentionally sabotaged the deal (that they tentatively had agreed to) by reneging on his agreement not to go to the UN (and then making additional demands in order to resume talks). Such duplicity during talks is one of many reasons Israelis are skeptical that Palestinians truly desire peace, and why I personally think the conflict will likely not end in my lifetime. My children will be fighting the same battles (with Hamas, Hezbollah and Fatah) in 20 years.

(By Adam Levick)

The peace process summed up. Israel is Charlie Brown (Peel Commission in 1937, UN Partition Resolution in 1947, 'Land for Peace' in 1967, Camp David in 2000, Taba in 2001, Annapolis in 2007-8, and now 2014, when an Israeli cabinet was on stand by to vote through a US proposal to keep the peace talks going, only to turn on the TV and watch with astonishment as the Palestinians pulled the football away again).

(By Alan Johnson)

By Ben-Dror Yemini from his "John Kerry ruined what John Kerry built":

After all, in previous rounds, we've seen the same framework he's been planning to present to Netanyahu and Abbas. President Bill Clinton's framework. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's framework. The Palestinians said no – twice. And both times, they paid no price. Both times, the finger was pointed at Israel. Another great success of the lies industry.

And a link to an excellent article by Isi Leibler: Blaming Israel for the Collapse of the Peace Negotiations.

Yep.