IF ISRAELI and Palestinian headlines agree on anything, it is that the negotiations John Kerry, America’s secretary of state, began broking last July are running into the sand. Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, reneged on his promise—as the Palestinians understood it—to free the fourth and last batch of two dozen long-serving Palestinian prisoners by the end of March. In response, Palestine’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, spurned America’s umpiring and took his campaign for statehood global, earning the first plaudits in years from more radical Palestinian factions, such as Hamas, which have long deemed him feeble. Mr Kerry, mocked by an Israeli minister as “messianic”, momentarily seemed to lose faith in his mission, turning his back on both parties by cancelling another emergency visit. “It’s up to the parties to make decisions,” he said.All this may yet prove to be more theatrical than truly menacing. Messrs Netanyahu and Abbas are jockeying in the weeks still within Mr Kerry’s nine-month time-frame for talks to end. Contrary to many headlines, Mr Abbas did not actually go to the UN, but signalled that he was just a signature away from doing so. None of the 15-odd international conventions he signed, such as the Geneva ones governing rules of war, actually inducts Palestine into UN bodies. Nor has Mr Netanyahu ruled out freeing the remaining 26 prisoners. Rather,...
From The Economist: Middle East and Africa
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