May
30
2016
By Daoud Kuttab
If the French diplomatic machine had a hard time scheduling a conference with US Secretary of State John Kerry, it will soon find out that its effort to arrange an international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be that much harder. In a three-day spat, a behind-the-scenes effort by Kerry and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to move theIsraeli government toward peace backfired.
The plan included Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog joining the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give it more muscle against right-wing settler ideologues. To make it more acceptable, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, one of the more popular Arab figures in Israel today, gave a pro-peace speech and said he was willing to help. Netanyahu and Herzog were supposed to head to Cairo to meet with Sisi.
However, instead of adding 25 members to his one-seat parliamentary majority, the prime minister offered the Defense Ministry to settler Avigdor Lieberman, whose right-wing Jewish Home party only won six seats in last year’s elections. This turn of events produced many reactions in Israel, including in the army, but the biggest potential loser in this cabinet reshuffle will be the French plan to hold an international conference. Continue Reading »