Tony Klug argues that President Obama’s visit may not be quite the disaster from a Palestinian point of view that so many feel it was. By appealing to ordinary Israelis over the heads of their leaders he emulated what Sadat did thirty-five years earlier. Maybe it will prove an important step in a changing the mood in Israel. Uri Avnery shares the optimism about Obama’s speech – “perfect” from an Israeli point of view – but he sees it as utterly lacking in empathy for the Palestinians

Saeb Erekat, negotiator for the PA, said at the weekend that they will work with international officials to restart negotiations with Israel, strengthened by their new UN status. Meanwhile, President Abbas says they will ask the ICC to prosecute Israel if it continues to violate agreements and Hamas vows to go its own way (see post below) .

The return of Palestinians killed in Israel was part of the deal to end the mass hunger strike, although PM Netanyahu now presents it as a humanitarian move which will help the peace process. Mahmoud Abbas has reminded him that it is the continued building of settlements which is the obstacle to talks. Reports from BBC news and Al Jazeera.

Fig-leaves for the institutional players, a naked emperor for the wishful thinkers, all metaphors for the ‘peace process’ convey it is not real. The ICG focuses on new forces, like religion, on possible new actors , Palestinian diaspora, settlers, and on agents, like the Quartet, to be discarded.

The dead-locked status quo in Israel/Palestine relations is forcing new tactics. 1) Some Palestinians have opted for a stategy of separatism (though no national liberation movement has succeeded without allies). 2) The ICG suggests new partners including settlers and Palestinian diaspora while Blue White Future advocates “constructive unilateralism”

In an interview with Christiane Amanpour, CNN, broadcast last Friday, Ehud Olmert says “I had to fight against superior powers, including millions and millions of dollars that were transferred from this country (the U.S.) by figures which were from the extreme right wing that were aimed to topple me as prime minister of Israel. There is no question about it.” When will he name names?

The Palestinian Authority has asked the UN Human Rights Council to conduct a formal inquiry into the impact of the settlements on Palestinians. Egypt has added its voice to this request. Israel has dismissed it as a move by the PA to avoid negotiations.

The second headline here – ’200 rockets hit Israel’ – is misleading; it should be ’200 rockets reach Israeli airspace’, where they were quickly detonated by Iron Dome (see post below). Meanwhile, the Dome provides the Haaretz editorial team with a good metaphor for the position of the Israeli government – sheltering behind its mega-expensive military system rather than engaging with political reality.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is to meet with Canada’s Stephen Harper on March 2nd on his way to meet President Obama. The group Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East has prepared this list of ten questions that should be put to him there – or anywhere.

Another proposal on the website this week for the future of Israel/Palestine in sharp disagreement with Wolman and Halper but sharing the view that the political status quo is intolerable. Here Sari Nusseibeh, President of Al-Quds unversity and former representative of the Palestinian National Authority, argues the best plan is a confederation of ethnic communities under Israeli rule in which Palestinians have full civic rights and freedoms.

On the last stage of his European tour, in which he is seeking to increase diplomatic presure on Israel to stop settlement building, the PA President tells Russia’s RT that Israel might withdraw from a few settlements and try to persuade the world that this has changed the status quo of occupier and occupied. Which it won’t. But he remains willing to negotiate on the two things that matter – borders and security.

Despite widespread cynicism, talks to set up talks between PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli envoy Yitzhak Molcho have continued in Amman. Media reports in the west and Israel – few and dismal, Arab press – many and more feisty. Examples from JPost, Ma’an, Naharnet news

Any peace process is frozen but, says this former American ambassador to Israel, there is no such thing as the status quo; things can only get worse without determined action. Actors such as the Arab League and ‘Washington’ – if it can overcome its hopelessness – could produce change. Daniel Kurtzer reviews the past and views a possible future strategy.

Talks between Palestinian and Israeli negotiators began in Jordan on 3rd January following sustained pressure from King Abdullah and the Quartet. The building of new settlements on land occupied by Israel was and remains the break point for Palestinians

A secret working paper written by staff at EU embassies in Israel proposes that the inequality between Arabs and Jews in Israel should become the core of policy towards Israel. The new approach is said to be the result of a British initiative.

Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated on 4.11.95. Recently Jewish communities have been debating how his legacy should be judged. Here Moshe Machover and Adam Keller argue about myths, words, actions. This is not a comment on the blog that we include here as an example of ‘The Rabin myth fostered by Gush Shalom’

Robert Cohen did not support BDS- too complicated, possible treachery to fellow-Jews But no international pressure or negotiations have stopped Israel’s rush to reforming its state on building and protecting settlements. So rather than hurling missiles, civil action is all that’s left. He deals with some ethical questions

Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American living in the West Bank, and director of the Arab Islamic Bank, says the pursuit of negotiations for a 2-state soutions has brought nothing but apartheid, racism and poverty.

Dr. Chehata, Press Officer for Middle East Monitor and prolific journalist, reviews a report by Tom Mills, Tom Griffin and David Miller on the links between right-wing groups and hostility to Muslims published today by Spinwatch (‘Monitoring PR and Spin’)

Joel Beinin examines the effect, or lack of it, of the Arab Spring on the players in Palestine’s future and concludes the 2-state solution is dead; 2nd, at a forum on Palestinian statehood, Samah Sabawi argued that the PA’s bid is a doomed strategy for resuming negotiations with Israel and will remain symbolic.