Will Israel accept Moscow’s proposal?

08.12.2016

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The Paris Conference

The meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas was going to be held during the international conference on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Paris scheduled for December 21st-22nd. Tel Aviv is well-known to be an opponent of talks in a multilateral format.

Legitimization of occupation

Mahmoud Abbas has called for the cessation of the occupation of Palestinian lands as a necessary condition for bilateral negotiations without any intermediaries. In turn, the Israeli Knesset (the parliament) has passed a law legitimizing the illegal Jewish settlements on the occupied territories. Moreover, it was the initiative of the prime minister that sped up the ratification of this law.

The last chance

However, the hope that a breakthrough in resolving this long-standing conflict would be achieved during the Paris conference was minimal even before Netanyahu’s refusal. Nevertheless, there are still some chances to resolve this issue. For example, the assistance of a mediator in the face of Moscow was proposed to both parties earlier.

Moreover, the Kremlin could help Tel Aviv settle the scandal with Spain that arose when an Israeli minister gave the Russian prime minister a secret European dual purpose drone as a gift. 

Israeli aggression

In addition to provocations against Palestine, Israel has stepped up attacks on Syria. A few raids were made yesterday, whereas before Tel Aviv could not launch more than one missile attack, often from the occupied Golan Heights. There were no victims reported during the Israeli aggression.

Testing?

All these facts show that Tel Aviv is not so much trying to ignite new armed conflicts as it is proving the need for its “protection”, for which, according to the recently adopted US military budget, the Obama Administration has allocated a lot of money - more than $200 million. This is apart from the contract concluded in autumn according to which Tel Aviv has no right to financial assistance outside the specified frameworks.

But in this case, resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict does not depend on the international community, but only on Israel, and in particular on whether the country will be able to overcome its dependence on US financing and assess the situation clearly and adequately.