Day for determining if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is interested in achieving peace or in continuing the occupation of Palestinian land. It is on that day that the 10-month moratorium – or slowdown – on settlement building comes to an end, an inconvenient three weeks after the scheduled start of new face-to-face peace talks on September 2. This time around the onus of keeping the talks going truly lies in Israel's hands as the settlement freeze was long a precondition for Mahmoud Abbas returning to the negotiating table. Israel met that demand halfway, and the US and its allies have prevailed on Abbas to return to the table despite Israel's less than perfect halt of settlement building. Abbas, however, has stated unequivocally that he will leave the talks immediately should settlement activity resume. And why shouldn't he? If Israel chooses to ignore Palestinian and international demands that it stop colonizing Palestinian land, then there is no basis for peace talks. The only manner to achieve peace in Palestine is through justice and compromise, and the time has come for Israel to undo some of its injustices. The Palestinians, on their part, have already agreed to compromise and let go of many of their legitimate demands. Surrounding states, in fact the entire Arab world, proposed a peace process that Israel has ignored till now. Now, however, the frighteningly obvious issue of Israeli construction on occupied land has become such an inevitable flash point, and the one and only way to remove such a catalyst for potentially dangerous confrontation is to end its existence. The colonization policy has been in policy for a long time. It is time for Israeli governments to ignore the rabid calls of the right to continue extending the country's borders into land it has no legal claim to and, in fact, belongs to other people. We will see what kind of diplomat Netanyahu really is. __
