From the Jerusalem Post:
Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who voted in favor of the West Bank construction moratorium in the security cabinet on November 25, said Sunday night that he would soon demand a revote if the Palestinian Authority continues to reject negotiations.
…
“If the Palestinian side, instead of accepting our outstretched hand, continues to give us the cold shoulder, attack us internationally and advance the Goldstone Report, we will return to the security cabinet to reconsider the freeze,” Steinitz told the crowd of some 500 supporters. “We won’t turn our cheek and continue to make down payments and receive in return nothing but incitement and a cold shoulder.”
See, the Palestinians have rightly observed that there’s no point in entering talks on a future settlement so long as illegal Israeli settlements continue to prejudice any future outcome of said talks. So, in other words, Israel will insist on continuing to violate international law so long as the Palestinians demand that they stop violating international law.
As for the Goldstone Report, this is the U.N. Human Rights Council report that concluded that both Israel and Hamas committed war crimes during Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip a year ago. Proponents of the report would like to see it’s recommendations adopted, beginning with credible self-investigations into apparent war crimes. Opponents (Israel and the U.S.) want to block the report and halt any follow-up action, such as a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for implementation of its recommendations. So, in other words, Israel will insist on continuing to violate international law so long as the Palestinians insist that Israel be held accountable (“attack us internationally”) for any violations of international law it has already committed.
So you see the framework Israeli policy makers operate within when it comes to the Palestinians and the illegally occupied territory and the illegal settlements within the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
