STORY SUMMARY

By Rami G. Khouri
The Daily Star

It might be coincidental timing or just a really bad case of mean-spirited in-your-face aggressive Israeli diplomacy. In the same week that China announced a peace plan for the Arab-Israeli conflict, Russia and the United States announced agreement to hold an international conference to try to resolve the Syrian conflict peacefully, and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he would return to the region later this month to attempt to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the Israeli government announced plans to build 300 new settler homes in the Beit-El colony near Ramallah.

This captures the two worst aspects of the current situation: Israeli land annexations and settlements expansion are perhaps the single greatest reason the Israeli-Palestinian peace process has failed for 45 years, and they also reflect the heart of the continuing Palestinian condition of occupation, displacement, exile and refugee status.

This raises the question of why the Chinese suddenly jumped into the Arab-Israeli peacemaking arena by announcing their “peace plan” during a week when the Palestinian and Israeli leaders visited China.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Columnist/2013/May-11/216661-chinas-intriguing-palestine-proposal.ashx#ixzz2T61CNIpS
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)