Sam Bahour, a Palestinian-American living in the West Bank, and director of the Arab Islamic Bank, says the pursuit of negotiations for a 2-state soutions has brought nothing but apartheid, racism and poverty.

Dr. Chehata, Press Officer for Middle East Monitor and prolific journalist, reviews a report by Tom Mills, Tom Griffin and David Miller on the links between right-wing groups and hostility to Muslims published today by Spinwatch (‘Monitoring PR and Spin’)

Joel Beinin examines the effect, or lack of it, of the Arab Spring on the players in Palestine’s future and concludes the 2-state solution is dead; 2nd, at a forum on Palestinian statehood, Samah Sabawi argued that the PA’s bid is a doomed strategy for resuming negotiations with Israel and will remain symbolic.

An AP Exclusive quotes a Palestinian official as saying they (the PA presumably) are offering to drop demands for a freeze on Israeli settlements if peace talks can begin on the basis of the 1967 borders as Obama proposed

A Foreign Policy analysis examines a new WikiLeaks revelation that US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice tried to block any UN investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza in exchange for Israeli participation in a US-backed peace process.

Amira Hass argues that the real failure of both the PLO/PA and of Hamas is their inability to translate the personal and collective stamina of the Palestinian people into a strategy of unarmed popular struggle: “Hamas and the PLO are in the thrall of their false status as two governments whose existence and maintenance have become a goal in itself. Had they not given up on their people as a decisive factor, the two rival forces would have listened to it, and before anything else found a way to end the dual rule.”

Over 1,600 PLO Negotiation Support Unit’s documents from 1999-2010 were leaked, published online by Al-Jazeera, and in print in a Guardian exclusive on 24 January. We provide a link to the documents and to some articles discussing their significance – including contributions by Nadia Hijab, Karma Nabulsi, Alastair Crooke, Akiva Eldar, Richard Silverstein the Magnes Zionist, Ali Abunimah and others.

Alistair Crooke argues that the Palestinian “statehood” on offer would have been a continuing occupation, and that the breakdown of the peace process and the recognition that a two-state solution is no longer in the cards, opens the way for other paths that don’t depend on Western mediation. It puts to rest, he believes, the fiction that a Palestinian state will emerge from even the best intentions of the West instead of from the political realities of the Middle East.

Geoffrey Aronson, editor of FMEP’s bimonthly Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories, surveys “almost two years of energetic but stillborn diplomacy [in which] the Obama administration has been unable to make progress on ending the occupation and creating a Palestinian state at peace with Israel. The president’s attempt to rein in settlement expansion and his effort to place settlements at the heart of a negotiated end to the Israel-Palestinian conflict have failed. As Obama surveys the future, he might recall Machiavelli’s wise counsel, “He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command.”

A group of 26 senior European leaders – including former heads of state, ministers and heads of European organizations – who held power during the past decade are calling for strong measures against Israel in response to its settlement policy and refusal to abide by international law. They expressed their position in an unusual letter sent a few days ago to the leadership of the European Union and the governments of the EU’s 27 member states.

The Obama administration has given up its effort to persuade the Israeli government to freeze construction of Jewish settlements for 90 days. The NYT reports: “The administration decided to pull the plug, officials said, because it concluded that even if Mr. Netanyahu persuaded his cabinet to accept a freeze — which he had not yet been able to do — the 90-day negotiating period would not have produced the progress on core issues that the United States originally had sought.” Really?! Richard Silverstein, for one, isn’t surprised since he’s been writing this since the beginning… And One Democracy evaluates the options ahead.

Christopher Hitchens takes on the imbecilities of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of Shas, partners in Netanyahu’s coalition, and those of Yisrael Beytenu in passing as warms to his real theme: the national humiliation of the United States at Israel’s hands, trading $3 billion of arms for 90 days of restraint on West Bank settlement building. Mark Perry in expresses similar sentiments in Foreign Policy.

Rachel Gai of Jewish Peace News introduces this article by Hasan Abu Nimah, former Jordanian ambassador at the UN, showing how ‘judicious distortion of language, based on “imported terminology, often crafted in Israel and disseminated by influential Western media, officials and think tanks, and by some Arab quarters and media under their influence”, has distanced people from real understanding of what the Arab-Israel conflict is about…’

Didi Remez of Coteret has published a translation of a Yedioth Ahronoth scoop which “publishes minutes of White House negotiations briefing for Jewish-American leadership”.

In a very helpful overview of the balance of forces in Israel and the region, Paul Rogers sees little prospect of progress in the forthcoming peace talks…

Ten years ago this month, Israelis and Palestinians gathered at Camp David, under the guidance of President Bill Clinton, for negotiations aimed at reaching a final agreement. The talks ended in failure, and by the end of September, the second intifada had begun. Ben White draws some lessons from this…

Ben White writes: “There is a real crisis here – but it is that of the international “peace process”, for so long considered untouchable, heading increasingly swiftly towards its ultimate demise…”

In extracts from his new book “Hopes and Prospects” Noam Chomsky provides an overview of recent history of Gaza, of the settlements and of Washington’s changing responses to Israel. He sees little substance to Obama’s commitment to democracy and human rights in relation to the conflict…

Further to our earlier round up of articles covering George Mitchell’s Middle East trip, The Forward’s Gal Beckerman has an in-depth examination of the “strain[ed]” nature of US-Israel relations, including the increased use of the anti-semitic “dual loyalty/treason” slur and raising questions about the nature of the future relationships between not only the US and [...]

Coverage – mainly from the US and Israel – of Senator George Mitchell’s current visit to the Middle East, Netanyahu’s rejection of an East Jerusalem settlement freeze (echoing earlier public comments from Lieberman and Knesset Speaker Rivlin) and today’s intriguing report that Netanyahu’s coalition partners ARE considering a settlement freeze. Plus reaction to Elie Wiesel’s ad on Jerusalem and criticism of Ron Lauder’s letter to Obama.