By Micah Halpern
I'm Predicting:
Palestine President Mahmoud Abbas is really caught up in cliche. He is up the tree without a ladder. He is stuck between a rock and a hard place. He is up the river without a paddle. I could go on.
The US is really putting pressure on Abbas to join the Israelis and sit down at the negotiating table. But Abbas has promised his people over and over that there will be no negotiations while there is still settlement building of any kind, to any degree, by Israel.
If Abbas comes to the table he appears weak to his people and to the rest of the Arab world. If he stays away he alienates both the United States and Israel.
Here is what he must do. Abbas must allow himself to be publicly dragged and heavily enticed to come to the table. Public reluctance will be the bone he throws to Palestinians and all other Arabs and coming to the table will be the present he delivers to the United States.
Abbas must ask for, even demand, a high price to sit at the table. He must make his demands public so that the mighty US and powerful Israel succumb to his Palestinian demands.
Then and only then can Mahmoud Abbas come to the table.
All that having been said, I do not think Abbas capable of taking the next step and actually cobbling out an agreement - but as I said, that is the next step.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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