Word: gaza
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...government committed to a two-state solution. Netanyahu's problem is not simply his partners, but also his own Likud party. Former Likud leader Ariel Sharon was forced to quit the party - in the face of a challenge led by Netanyahu - when he pulled Israel out of Gaza. Likud's party platform specifically opposes the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza. Rather than a prisoner of the right, Netanyahu has until now been its most presentable leader...
...Netanyahu may be moving to reposition himself, or, at least, to rebrand his position. He's likely to make some concessions in easing the siege of Gaza by allowing more goods in to enable a reconstruction that has thus far been prevented by the Israeli blockade. And he'll also likely take down one or two outposts built without permission by Israeli zealots outside of the boundaries of their existing settlements. Such actions will provoke televised clashes between settlers and police, and make the case that Netanyahu is acting on the settlement issue (without necessarily stopping construction within the boundaries...
...Administration's intention to move quickly toward the creation of a Palestinian state at peace with Israel. Particularly irksome to Netanyahu is Obama's insistence that Israel immediately freeze all construction in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem - territories conquered by Israel in 1967 - that together with Gaza are envisaged as the basis of a Palestinian state. Netanyahu's government has thus far refrained from embracing the two-state formula, and is committed to expanding the existing settlements. It claims a right to continue building inside the boundaries of the settlements to accommodate their "natural growth," an argument...
...Obviously, he wasn't going to offer any concessions, publicly, to Obama. In fact, Mashaal is facing more immediate problems than the final-status negotiations that Obama is proposing. Gaza, which Hamas controls, lies in ruins. The border crossings are still sealed by Israel, except for some humanitarian goods, despite entreaties by Hillary Clinton, and the Gazans are unable to rebuild. Mashaal is also enmeshed in his own local political struggle, against Fatah, the moderate Palestinian party, which receives the bulk of international donations for reconstruction and whose security forces are armed and trained by the U.S. Hamas violently expelled...
...what are our options, given Mashaal's refusal to yield on any of the demands made by Obama? Hamas has some inconvenient facts in its favor: it exists, it remains strong in Gaza - as a direct consequence of the real social services it provides and its relative lack of corruption compared with Fatah - and it has a legitimate complaint. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is inhumane and outrageous. Palestinians are imprisoned behind a barrier wall that does not conform to the 1967 lines; they are forced to endure hundreds of Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks whose purpose seems humiliation...