Quartet should focus on core issues

The flurry of international action over Palestine is a disgrace. It should have happened long ago. In the 14 months since Barack Obama took office, his envoys have criss-crossed the Middle East seeking support for peace talks, but failed to get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's support for anything meaningful. In fact, the opposite has occurred as Netanyahu has tried to come up with his own new conditions for any talks, demanding the Palestinians recognise Israel as a ‘Jewish' state, and calling for a future Palestinian state to be demilitarised.

Some months ago, Obama was so desperate to be seen to be doing something in the Middle East that he strong-armed the Palestinians into agreeing to indirect talks with the Israelis, the so-called ‘proximity talks'. These have rightly collapsed as Israel announced yet more expansion and new building in its illegal colonies on the West Bank and in Occupied Jerusalem.

The Quartet on the Middle East the US, EU, UN and Russia met in Moscow to try to restart the talks. The American administration says that it wants Israeli-Palestinian talks to focus on the core issues at the heart of the conflict, such as the colonies, borders and the future status of Occupied Jerusalem. If this is true then it is good news, but the US approach has not been obvious so far.

The Quartet should not be distracted by Netanyahu's building plans, which are indeed illegal and provocative these are only part of a much wider picture. Peace in Palestine and Israel will come with a full, equitable settlement in which Palestine gets its territory back, and Israel gets full recognition and the security that will go with that.

The Quartet would do well to encourage some confidence-building measures, but only as part of an immediate return to proper talks based on the well-established work done in previous rounds of talks.