So, is Kerry to be congratulated for getting Israel and PLO back to negotiations? Ah... no. I mean, sure, it's possible this is a positive turn, but in reality it's all theatre far as I'm concerned - raise enough of a fuss as Kerry has done and Israel has no choice but to agree because world opinion is always at the ready to call them unreasonable - which is exactly why the PLO also agrees since they know any failure will be blamed on Israel and any success [highly unlikely] credited to them - in short, it's a farce with Kerry as director.
Now, some want to believe that Israel's willingness to give up prisoners as a concession to get the PLO to the table means that they actually are holding out hope for this thing - and must admit I'm a little confused as to what they're thinking in making this gesture - but most likely explanation to me is that this is their way of mitigating backlash when talks collapse, as in 'you see, we gave up these prisoners so of course we were serious about reaching an accommodation, but...' - etc etc etc. It does seem questionable if not flat out risky or misguided giving up these prisoners to serve a process you deem doomed to fail - and so logically one might assume they in fact don't see it as doomed to fail - but not I'm not buying it.
