Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is drawing a line in the sand. Peace talks with Israel will not continue unless Israel continues a 10-month long moratorium on development in the West Bank. Unfortunately, it appears that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not prepared to budge either out of fear that continuing the moratorium will damage his political capital with the "pro-settlement" crowd. So what has been accomplished in this 10-month span? Very little. In fact, it took until September of this year to get Israel and Palestine into direct negotiations and it now appears that peace talks may break down completely. If the worst is realized and peace talks are abandoned and Israel continues to build in the West Bank, the consequences could be dire. In fact, Jordanian King Abdullah II predicts that the Palestinians and the Israelis will be at war within a year.
So what are the chances of sustaining peace? This depends on both Abbas and Netanyahu. At the moment, refuse to budge on different aspects. Abbas has made his position clear on the settlement of the West Bank and has, of course, advocated for a Palestinian state. For his part, Netanyahu has somewhat conceded to the idea of a Palestinian state but his position is still rather vague. Any accepted Palestinian state would almost have to include West Jerusalem, which at the moment is over 40 percent Jewish and, as of Monday, open to new tenets.
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