If there is to be peace, colonies cannot remain

Peace will not come to Palestine if the leading intermediaries duck the vital issues at the heart of the problem. Israel wants security, and the Palestinians want their country back after years of occupation. To get anywhere near sensible negotiations that will offer both sides respect and a way forward, it is not possible to pretend that some problems do not exist.

Such deliberate blindness is what went wrong with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's five-day Middle East trip, during which she managed to praise the present bargaining position offered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an "unprecedented" gesture raising hope that peace negotiations could commence. This was ridiculous, as Netanyahu's gesture included a plan to build 3,000 new homes in the illegal Israeli colonies scattered all over the West Bank.

Early this year, US President Barack Obama gave an exciting address to the Arab world in which he called for action on finding peace in the Middle East. The Arab world took Obama's position in good faith, delighted that the new president had outlined a more constructive route forward, which also fitted into his more inclusive vision of how he saw the world working.

But the great rhetoric has not been matched by action, and the current lack of American direction is starting to wear thin. This is why it was such a disaster for Clinton to go off-message and add her own views on Netanyahu's position, which she then had to retract the next day, and make clear that the United States regards colonies as illegal, and supports a freeze in building.

An immediate freeze on building in the colonies is essential, but that would be only a start. What has to happen in the medium term is that all the colonies should be knocked down, which would then allow peace to flourish in the long term.