Obama made settlements an obstacle 
By: KHALED ABU TOAMEH 
April 19, 2012 
The Australian 
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/obama-made-settlements-an-obstacle/story-e6frg6ux-1226332012455
THE Palestinian Authority is demanding that the UN Security Council condemn Israel for building in the settlements and east Jerusalem neighborhoods. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Palestinian Authority said that Israeli settlements were illegal and destructive to the peace process. 
The letter was sent to Ban before a meeting of representatives of the Quartet - the US, EU, UN and Russia - in New York to discuss ways of reviving the stalled peace process.
The Palestinian Authority also urged the Quartet to exert pressure on Israel to stop activities in the settlements or face being held fully responsible for derailing the peace process.
For the past two decades, the Palestinian Authority had been negotiating with Israel while construction in the settlements was continuing. The construction did not seem to bother Yasser Arafat, who continued to hold peace talks with Israel even while the bulldozers were working in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
True, the Palestinian Authority under Arafat did sometimes voice opposition to Israel's policy of settlement construction, but that did not prompt them to boycott the peace talks.
Arafat's successor, Mahmoud Abbas, also did not seem to have a problem with the settlements during the first few years of his term in office.
Abbas continued to talk to representatives of the Israeli government of Ehud Olmert while settlements were being expanded and new housing units were being built in east Jerusalem.
The issue of the settlements became a major obstacle to peace only when US President Barack Obama one day demanded that Israel freeze all settlement activities. Obama's demand embarrassed the Palestinian Authority, whose leaders rushed to endorse the call.
The Palestinian Authority leadership even took a step further by announcing that it would not return to the negotiating table unless Israel halted all settlement activities.
But then one morning Obama abandoned the demand, leaving Abbas alone on a high tree. Now Abbas is searching for an honourable way to climb down. He is hoping that the US administration or the Quartet will provide him with the ladder.
The real question that needs to be raised is whether settlements are the major obstacle to peace.
Abbas knows that the future of the settlements will be determined only through direct negotiations with Israel. He also knows that some of the settlements will stay in place even after the signing of a final and comprehensive peace treaty.
In 2005, Israel destroyed more than 20 settlements and evicted 8000 Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. The move did not leave an impression on the overwhelming majority of Palestinians, especially those affiliated with Hamas and radical groups in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and its allies misinterpreted the disengagement from the Gaza Strip as a sign of weakness, not a goodwill gesture on the part of Israel.
Even if Israel tomorrow dismantled 90 per cent of the settlements in the West Bank, who says that the Palestinians will take to the streets to sing the Israeli national anthem?
Settlements may be a problem, but they are certainly not the major obstacle to the peace process.
There are, meanwhile, many other obstacles to peace.
These include the rise of Islamists in the Arab world, the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas and the reality that the Gaza Strip has been turned into a centre for global jihad and a front for Iran's extremist rulers.
The major obstacle to peace is the increasing radicalisation of the Arab and Islamic masses and the demonisation of Jews.
As far as many Arabs and Muslims are concerned, Israel is one big settlement that needs to be removed.
Another major obstacle can be found in the irony that Abbas does not seem to have a mandate from his people to make any concessions to Israel. A president who cannot even visit his private residence in the Gaza Strip will never be able to deliver anything on any front.