Mr. Indyk said that Mr. Netanyahu would find it more politically palatable to engage Syria than to alienate the settler movement by slowing or halting settlements as a concession to the Palestinians.
Bibi says no to America's nuclear deal with Iran, no to halting settlements and, in effect, no to a Palestinian state.Articulate and cocksure, Mr Netanyahu for his part sees himself a bit like Winston Churchill, a voice in the wilderness warning of threats that others prefer to ignore, and perhaps a saviour, too.
Since then Netanyahu has refused any public commitment to halting settlement building in the city.
Mr. Abbas, in his speech to the United Nations on Saturday, did not repeat his threat to walk out on the peace talks, but he did say that halting settlement activity was the only way to give them credibility.
Meanwhile, Israel has a weak government that has been reluctant to make the serious moves that Palestinian President Abu Mazen desperately needs - moves like freeing of prisoners, lifting checkpoints and halting settlement expansion, let alone uplifting the illegal outposts.
Additional steps can be taken by leadership on both sides, including: halting mutual acrimonious public narratives, modifying textbooks, taking no provocative actions (i.e. halting settlement expansion during the period of reconciliation), and maintaining security cooperation between the two sides.
For Israel to make progress on halting settlement growth, Netanyahu must be able to trust that Obama is applying equal pressure on the Arab states to deliver concessions with the goal of normalizing relations with Israel.
Mr. Olmert's government failed to halt settlements and give the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas — Hamas's sworn enemy — the support he needed.
In a meeting with young Likud supporters last spring, which one of them transcribed online, Netanyahu boasted of defying Obama's pressure to halt settlements; 2013 was a record year for settlement construction in the West Bank.
Along with Mr. Netanyahu, the biggest drag on serious progress seems to be the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, who has shown no sign of dropping his demand that Israel halt settlements before negotiations resume.
If we insist on fulfilling the dream in its entirety, we are liable to lose it all.' " Which is why Palestinians need to drop all their preconditions and enter negotiations and Israel needs to halt settlements and test and test again whether President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of the Palestinian Authority can deliver.
