Palestinian issues low on Obama’s agenda

In a sad commentary on the situation, one Israeli source believed Netanyahu, who has always harboured a fundamental mistrust of Palestinian intentions, will put forward proposals for a partial settlement in the sure knowledge they will be rejected, simply to blunt international criticisms that he is being intransient.

A further complication is provided by Hamas, regarded by the US and Israel as a terrorist organisation, which controls the Gaza Strip.

Hamas has voiced total opposition to Obama’s visit, maintaining that a return to the negotiating table is unacceptable as it has always involved Palestinian concessions for nothing in return.

Hamas does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and claims its entire territory for a future Palestinian state. It regularly fires rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel, inevitably resulting in overwhelming retaliation.

Hamas spokesman Yusuf Rizqah said two decades of negotiations had produced nothing.

“The Palestinian people are fed up with these meetings which only result in lost ground because of settlement activity, whether in the West Bank or Jerusalem,” Rizqah said. He accused the Palestinian Authority on the West Bank of being weak and prone to blackmail because it relied on financial support from the US.

His words were echoed by Nicola Nasir, writing in the Hamas newspaper Filastin. The proposal for a three-way meeting between Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas “would be no more than a public relations manoeuvre to whitewash Obama’s image,” she writes.

In a side issue a group of Palestinian journalists will try and present Obama with a letter complaining that freedom of expression on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip is under threat. The journalists claim the authorities in the two jurisdictions regularly harass and arrest news people who criticise their policies and leadership.