Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — U.S. special envoy Martin Indyk has acknowledged the failure of a nine-month U.S. effort led by Secretary of State John Kerry to achieve an Israeli-PA agreement.

He said both sides missed opportunities and refused to make “gut-wrenching compromises.”

“It is easier for the Palestinians to sign conventions and appeal to international bodies in their supposed pursuit of justice and their rights, a process which by definition requires no compromise,” Indyk said.

“It is easier for Israeli politicians to avoid tension in the governing coalition and for the Israeli people to maintain the current, comfortable status quo.”

Indyk said the United States has determined that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas was focused on finding a successor.

The senior U.S. diplomat said the 79-year-old Abbas was exhausted and sought to retire after nearly a decade as PA chairman. The diplomat said the search for a successor distracted Abbas from efforts to reach a settlement with Israel.

“He is 79 now,” Indyk said. “He is weary. He wants to leave office, and he is more focused on succession now than on making peace.”

In an address to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on May 8,
Indyk said Abbas concluded that Israel was not a “reliable partner” in his
effort to establish an independent Palestinian state. Indyk said the PA
chairman was dismayed by Israeli government announcements of Jewish
construction in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

“Abu Mazen [Abbas] shut down,” Indyk said.

The administration of President Barack Obama has announced a review in
wake of the suspension of negotiations. But Indyk said he did not envision a
U.S. arms embargo on Israel as that which took place in 1975.

“President Obama and Secretary Kerry would never suspend U.S.-Israel
military relations as their predecessors did back then,” Indyk said. “Those
military relations are too important to both our nations.”

  admits failure of Kerry’s shuttle diplomacy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, Martin Indyk, U.S. faults both sides