I’d say the developments reported by Ethan Bronner in The New York Times show that even very modest American pressure can force the Israeli government to try to do something to heal the breach. But it’s important to be clear that this doesn’t actually amount to very much:
Israel would be open to a complete freeze of settlement building in the West Bank for three to six months as part of a broad Middle East peace endeavor that included a Palestinian agreement to negotiate an end to the conflict and confidence-building steps by major Arab nations, senior Israeli officials said Sunday. [...] The freeze would not affect construction that was already under way, nor include East Jerusalem. But it would mean that during the specified time no construction of any kind could start even in the close-in settlement blocks that Israel expects to keep in any future two-state agreement with the Palestinians.
The combination of the short duration of the promise with the exemption for “already under way” development seems to deprive this of much real force. This wouldn’t halt any projects on which ground has been broken, and it wouldn’t halt continued planning, etc. for any projects planned to be undertaken in the near future. And my guess is that there’s probably a lot you could do to fudge the difference between a “shovel ready” but not-yet-underway project and one that’s already begun.
There’s no reason it should be this hard for Israel to agree to just stop and thereby toss the ball back into the Palestinians court.
Previous in TP Yglesias
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