Tired efforts, no result

Some hope was pinned on Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ very recent visit to the White House for talks with President Barack Obama.

It was hoped that the talks would contribute to moving forward the stalled peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis, but the outcome was disappointing, at least for the Palestinian side.

In the US case, the easy justification for the lack of significant move on the peace front is that Obama must be preoccupied by the events in Ukraine.

But that would be deceptive. Truth is, the US, with the obvious exception of Secretary of State John Kerry’s involvement, has little political will to invest in the Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. 

All the US president could bring himself to do was to call on Abbas to take “risks” for peace, as if all the “risks” — read all the compromises and concessions — taken so far for the sake of reaching some understanding had been taken by Israel.

“It is very hard, it is very challenging. We’re going to have to take some tough decisions and risks,” said Obama during the White House exchange of views with the Palestinian leader.

Had Obama asked both sides, Israel foremost, to take risks for peace, he would have sounded fairer, but to ask the Palestinians to take more risks after all the concessions made in the hope that they would gain peace is ludicrous.

Abbas emerged from the Oval Office confirming that no substantive or consequential agreement was struck with Obama.

Even the so-called “framework” accord that Kerry has been busy working on for months seems far from a definitive shape.

Abbas made the release of the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners, as promised on
March 29, a priority.

To be sure, freeing the Palestinian prisoners who have been languishing in Israeli jails for decades is a very important issue for the Palestinian people, but the Palestinian leadership needs to be careful not to give the impression that their release is all it wants from Obama at this juncture.

Whatever reasoning guided Abbas and whatever message the US administration is trying to send out, one thing should be made clear: Palestinians have no more concessions to make even if their leaders want to make them.

The peace process industry has to stop some time, as there is nothing left to churn out. And people are tired of hoping that the impossible will happen.