Tlaib - Yet another brief history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict

The two step shuffle danced between Tlaib and Israel needs to be seen as a precis of all attempts for Israel to negotiate with Palestinians.

1. Rashida Tlaib sought permission to tour the Palestinian territories
2. Israel refused her application, but offered a compromise
3. She re-applied, appearing to accept the compromise.
4. Israel in turn reconsidered her application and, standing by its compromise, allowed her in.
5. She renegged on the compromise, equating compromise with failure.
6. The deal fell through.
7. The media blamed Israel for the failure.

THIS ENCAPSULATES ALL OF PALESTINIAN NEGOTIATION TECHNIQUE SINCE ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE.

It is a microcosm of Israel Palestinian negotiations.

What can be learned from this?

• Unwillingness to compromise makes you the darling of some elements in the Left
• Unwillingness to compromise makes you a media celebrity
• Unwillingness to compromise at the end of the day gets nothing concrete for the constituents you purport to represent. The media attention and the praise from those elements on the Left have so far not helped the Palestinians. It is a forlorn hope that some day those two so-called "successes" will get the Palestinians any rights.
• Israel is prepared to make compromises. All the anti-Israel articles I have read accept as a fact that Israel's offfer was genuine.
• Extrapolating from last week's events (and confirmed by all the other negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians) it is apparent that no concession which Israel makes will ever, ever be enough to satisfy Palestinian demands.

If Tlaib had accepted the compromise offered by Israel she would have set an example, albeit small, of what the proper way forward yields. If she had gone to the Palestinian territories, her trip would have been a morale boost for the Palestinians, whom she cares so much about.