It would be difficult to find a circumstance in which the Palestinian command would find itself forced to succumb to American blackmail and Israeli arrogance such as the one it is currently facing. Indeed, it knows that cooperating with the calls of American Secretary of State John Kerry to resume the negotiations will not achieve any of the Palestinians' demands, neither at the level of the final status issues nor at that of any others. It also knows that Barack Obama's administration has no intention and is unable to practice any pressures on Benjamin Netanyahu to get him to respect the necessary conditions for the success of the negotiations process and the achievement of results, i.e. force Israel to respect the international resolutions related to the fate of the occupied territories, the refugees' issue and the future of the city of Jerusalem. Yet, Abu Mazen was forced to head to these talks, bearing in mind the deteriorating Arab situation, the fact that the central cause is the last of its concerns, and the ongoing Israeli settlement activities on Palestinian soil, in a way rendering the establishment of whichever viable state very unlikely. In addition, there is an internal Palestinian divide which has started to confirm the establishment of two Palestinian mini-states, fighting among each other over power and legitimacy and subjected to two different ways of life. Therefore, no one has any illusions about the outcome of the negotiations that are supposed to be launched today between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And had there been any such illusions, the Israeli government eliminated them with its decision to build around 3,000 settlement units in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. At this level, it would be enough to go over some of the reactions towards this decision: Yasser Abed Rabbo, the secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee, wondered: If the negotiations are starting off with the expansion of the settlement activities in the West bank and Jerusalem, how will they end? The deputy chairman of the Jerusalem municipality, which announced the construction of 942 settlement units in the Gilo neighborhood, described the decision as being terrible and said it provoked the Palestinians, Americans, and the entire world. For his part, an official in the Israeli Peace Now organization said that Netanyahu was doing everything to sabotage the negotiations even before they begin, while Haaretz commented on the Israeli decision in yesterday's issue with an editorial headlined "Targeted assassination of talks." John Kerry, the sponsor of the negotiations, was the only one who did not perceive the Israeli decision as being odd, even calling on the Palestinians not to boycott the negotiations in response to it and stressing his government's stance regarding the fact that all the "settlements are illegitimate." At the same time, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, was confirming that the new construction activities will be carried out in areas which Israel intended to keep. In other words, he practically determined the fate of the occupied territories before the launching of the negotiations, leaving it up to the Palestinians to negotiate over their remaining land following the deployment of the Jewish settlements on it. Ordinarily, it would have been possible to call on the Palestinian command to abstain from participating in these negotiations, or at least to register its objection towards this Israeli undermining of the simplest negotiating conditions by imposing facts on the ground and blocking the way before the purpose of the talks. But how could the Palestinian command adopt such a courageous decision, at a time when it is besieged by the financial need for the promised American aid and the Arabs' preoccupation with the domestic scene in which their states are drowning every day? In light of the marginalization of the Palestinian cause, one could even say that Abu Mazen agreed to head to the negotiations to bring his cause back on the world map, after a three-year absence provoked by the Arab spring events which produced nothing but an autumn wherever they erupted.
