Will settlement construction dispute fail Mideast direct talks? (3)

"BUYING TIME"

Prof. Hillel Frisch, a political scientist at Bar-Ilan's University's Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, holds a radical and refreshing view of the current talks.

He maintains that current peace talks are aimed at enabling both sides to "buy time and provide a sense of progress and stability."

"The Palestinian insistence on a total freeze of construction aims to ensure the future status quo of the two states for two peoples solution," said Frisch, adding "the Palestinians are afraid that until that point is reached, any Israeli expansion in the West Bank will affect the future Palestinian state."

"In addition, achieving a comprehensive construction freeze will give the Palestinian leadership a big boost in its struggle against Hamas," the professor added.

Frisch is careful in predicting how Netanyahu will heed Abbas' demand for extension of the moratorium.

"Prophecy is a fool's game," he said, "but I think Netanyahu will eventually commit to a total construction freeze in small, isolated communities while limiting construction within the large settlement blocs in accordance with natural (population) growth needs."

Source: Xinhua


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