LONDON — The headlines in the Western media all said more or less the same thing when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pulled the plug on the latest round of the "Middle East peace process" on Sunday. "Netanyahu urges (Palestinian leader Mahmoud) Abbas to continue peace talks as building freeze expires," they said, or "Netanyahu appeals for calm as freeze on settlements runs out." Et cetera.
The implicit message was that this moderate, reasonable man is still pleading for peace, even though circumstances beyond his control are making it harder to achieve. Let us hope that the Palestinians can find it in their hearts to be equally reasonable and peace-loving.
But it was Netanyahu who agreed to the building freeze 10 months ago, because the Palestinians were understandably refusing to negotiate over the future of their land while Israelis continue to colonize it — or maybe just because the U.S. government, which agrees with the Palestinians about this, was twisting his arm very hard.
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