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 Offering his first public account of U.S. Secretary of State John
Kerry's failed, nine-month effort to strike a peace deal by April
29, U.S. special envoy Martin Indyk made clear there was blame on
both sides, citing Israeli settlement-building as well as the
Palestinians' signing of 15 international conventions.
However, Indyk suggested talks may resume eventually, citing the
start-and-stop example of former U.S. Secretary of State Henry
Kissinger's ultimately successful 1975 effort to disengage Egyptian
and Israeli forces in the Sinai.
"What was true then is also possibly true today," Indyk told a
conference hosted by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy
think tank. "In the Middle East, it's never over."
The central issues to be resolved in the more than six-decade
Israeli-Palestinian conflict include borders, security, the fate of
Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
"One problem that revealed itself in these past nine months is that
the parties, although showing some flexibility in the negotiations,
do not feel the pressing need to make the gut-wrenching compromises
necessary to achieve peace," Indyk said.
 "It is easier for the Palestinians to sign conventions and appeal to
international bodies in their supposed pursuit of justice and their
rights, a process which by definition requires no compromise," he
said. "It is easier for Israeli politicians to avoid tension in the
governing coalition and for the Israeli people to maintain the
current, comfortable status quo."
"The fact is, both the Israelis and Palestinians missed
opportunities and took steps that undermined the process," Indyk
said.
On April 24, Israel suspended the talks after Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas's unexpected unity pact with the rival Islamist Hamas
group, a step that appeared to be the final nail in the coffin of
the U.S.-sponsored negotiations.
Indyk also described the Palestinian decision to sign the 15
international treaties - in what seemed a gesture of defiance toward
Israel, which believes such moves may confer legitimacy on the
Palestinians - as "particularly counterproductive."
He also detailed Israeli moves to build additional homes for Jewish
settlers in the occupied West Bank and cited these as among the
central factors that undermined the negotiations.
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During the past nine months, Indyk said Israel had tendered to build
4,800 housing units in areas that Palestinian maps have acknowledged
would go to Israel. However, it also advanced planning for another
8,000 units in other parts of the West Bank where the Palestinians
hope to establish a state of their own.
This, he suggested, undercut the talks by helping to convince Abbas
that he did not have a serious negotiating partner in Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The two sides met face-to-face, with the United States sitting in as
a largely silent observer, for the first six months after the talks
resumed on July 29, Indyk said.
In the next phase of about two months, the United States negotiated
first with Israel and then with the Palestinians on "bridging
proposals" to try to bring them closer together.
"During that time ... Abu Mazen (Abbas) shut down," Indyk said,
saying Israeli settlement activity as well as uncertainty about who
might eventually succeed him were factors.
"He came to the conclusion that he didn't have a reliable partner
for the kind of two-state solution that he was looking for and he
... shifted to his legacy and the succession," he said. "He is 79
now. He is weary. He wants to leave office and he is more focused on
succession now than on making peace."
(Editing by Paul Tait)
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