France to Palestinians: sabotage negotiations - get yourself a country

The headline doesn't say it all:

France to recognise Palestinian state if deadlock with Israel not broken

Neither does the rest of the article that starts with:

France will recognise a Palestinian state if its efforts in coming weeks to try to break the deadlock between Israelis and Palestinians fail, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday.

There isn't a single person who doesn't see what was going on with so called negotiations during too many years to count. On one side, the Palestinian Authority - a rather small bunch of corrupt autocrats - busy stuffing their pockets with the foreign aid money and raising new preconditions every time a possibility of negotiations looms.

On the other hand there is our government (well, Bibi, to be precise), quite happy with the status quo and, with the so far unending turmoil in the Arab world, steadily pursuing its unfailing recipe of "do nothing and wait" policy. Which stance is kind of hard to blame, seeing as Fatah chieftains, whose differences with Hamas are mostly in the speeches in English aimed at the gullible Western public, say quite openly that "a Palestinian state alongside Israel is only “a phase” and that Palestine should eventually stretch from the Jordan River to the sea".

Thankfully, there are several other factors that play in favor of the status quo. First of all, the mere idea of signing any kind of peace treaty with Israel frightens the Ramallah bosses to no end. Their own brethren are busily sharpening their knives just for such an occasion. Then, a prospect of a country to manage and an economy to lead forward is totally foreign to the gang that so far succeeded only in nationalistic demagoguery and in filling their own pockets, as mentioned above. And, of course, a mere thought of a possibility of democratic elections (delayed for too many years already) and of a possible takeover of the West Bank by Hamas - not because Hamas' ideology is so different, but because Hamas is perceived as less corrupt by the general population - freezes the Fatah chieftains' blood.

The status quo, what with being propped by IDF guns on one side (against Hamas) and playing the eternal victim (against the cruel Zionists) on the other, which play promises more donations from the adoring EU, US and the oil rich Arab countries, is just what the doctor ordered for Mr Abbas and his cronies. Any change in this balancing act will be disastrous for that bunch.

All in all: good luck, Mr Fabius.