Immovable Object Meets Immovable Object

As predicted the Fatah convention, the first in twenty years, saw the oldest and at one time largest of the Palestinian "resistance" groups trying to outdo Hamas in the militant irredentist category. All that was missing was the physical presence of Arafat complete with checked table cloth on his head and pistol on his hip. His spirit hung heavy in the air of Bethlehem as delegates, old and young, militant and more so, haggled, bargained, and spouted expletives against the Zionist entity.

As the votes were counted in the uncontested re-election of Mahmoud Abbas, the fire breathing folks declared that Fatah would continue resistance to Israel unless its conditions for peace were fully met. The major requirement for Palestinian peace in our time was the full evacuation of the 300,000 or so Israelis from the "settlements" built on land taken from Jordan in the Six Day War including East Jerusalem.

As a conference paper put it with typical Palestinian delicacy, "Fatah will continue to sacrifice victims until Jerusalem is returned clean of settlements and settlers." That seems rather definite, doesn't it?

The Israeli government response was not long in coming. Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was blunt. His government would not repeat the "mistake" of "evacuating" settlers from the disputed territories of the West Bank. He would not do what former prime minister Sharon did in the Gaza Strip--remove Jewish settlers at bayonet point.

PM Netanyahu pointedly noted that the Israeli withdrawal did not bring peace and security for either the Israelis or the Arabs of the Gaza. No one oriented as to time and place could argue with him on that point. Even before Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip, Islamist jihadists used the place as a launching point for attacks of all sorts. Since Hamas took over, life has been nasty, brutish, and often short for the citizens of Gaza as Israel was compelled to defend its people and territory against indiscriminate rocket and mortar fire.

The majority of the Israeli public supports Netanyahu's defiant stand. This is particularly true with respect to the "settlements" in and around East Jerusalem. There is no conceivable way that the Israelis will continence a retreat from East Jerusalem. Period.

Israel long ago annexed the entirety of Jerusalem. While the US and other countries do not recognise the annexation, this is quite irrelevant. Even if some miracle provided for the Israelis to agree to move out of the other "settlements" and retreat back across the fossil of the 1949 armistice, the Green Line, there is no possibility that East Jerusalem and its environs would be abandoned to the Arabs.

The Palestinians (along with the Arabs generally) will never accept a peace agreement which leaves East Jerusalem in Jewish hands. The Israelis will never accept a peace treaty which surrenders the Old City and new "settlements" to the Arabs.

Immovable object meets immovable object. There is not any wiggle room for diplomacy to work. For each side, peace without Jerusalem is not worth the price. There is no coinciding interest or set of interests which diplomats can use to lever either party into a less intransigent posture.

The lads of Fatah recognise this. That is why the group with a more than a half century of terrorism behind it is quite willing to grease the skids to compromise (read Israeli surrender) with the blood of "victims."

Fatah has long been indifferent to killing and being killed. As long as the leadership can exhibit the bravery of being out of range, Fatah is quite willing to dispatch suicide bombers, gun-toting commandos, and others filled with murderous rage in the hope that sufficient killing will either undercut Israeli political will or force the tender hearted of the "international community" to pressure Israel into surrender.

Fatah has been every bit as willing as Hamas to use murder and the bodies of its own people as weapons in the never ending war against Israel. Whether called "intafada" or something else, the brutal truth remains that Fatah is ready, willing, able, and eager to use the lives of civilians as its preferred tool of war.

The Fatah tiger has been willing to cover its stripes in recent years with the whitewash of the Palestinian Authority. The stripes have come back during the convention in Bethlehem. The essential difference between Fatah and Hamas is that the latter is much more honest, open, and transparent about its nature, character, and goals than the former.

There is a bit of delightful irony in that Hamas has been undertaking a tendentious charm and smile offensive directed at the Obama administration at the same time as Fatah has been showing its true colors. Of course, the Hamas public relations campaign is undermined by its continued hate Israel rhetoric and actions aimed at the population under its control, which are easily accessed by outsiders on the Internet.

Presumably, the Obama administration has the capacity to understand what is at work with both Fatah and Hamas. Presumably, it is aware that both Hamas and Fatah share the goals of removing Israel from the map. Presumably it is aware that the immovable object dilemma posed by East Jerusalem, the nature of borders, and the Palestinian "right of return," all stand as obstacles to a comprehensive peace treaty which are not reducible by either pressure on Israel or the normal tools of diplomacy.

If President Obama and his plethora of foreign policy "experts" can get a grip on reality, the administration will back off from pressuring Israel. It will re-focus its efforts on Syria, which has the advantage of being a rational actor with one firm requirement for peace with Israel--return of the Golan Heights.

Levering Israel and Syria to the bargaining table and shepherding a treaty between the two will further isolate the Palestinians. It will put another potential wedge in the Arab bloc. It will deprive Hamas of the necessary intermediary between itself and its prime sponsor, Iran.

None of these are inconsiderable goals. Their achievement will not be easy, but the rewards would be worth the effort. The Syrian gambit has a greater probability of success than continuing the present course of attempting to pretend that either Fatah or Hamas contains a single rational brain cell in their collective skulls.

Or, as a second, and viable alternative, the Obama administration can just walk away from the mess. There is little to win and much to lose in continuing the game when the sheer intransigence of all parties is considered.

Yeah, presidents hate to admit they are not all-powerful, but sometimes the truth, painful as it is, hurts less than keeping up the pretense of being able to do the impossible.