Abbas urges UN Security Council to reject Quartet report

[Little Tich]

3. It seems as if Abbas has indeed good reasons to reject the report:

How Israel Succeeds in Watering Down Criticism From Major Powers

Source: The Forward, July 5, 2016

Ahead of the release last week of a report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by the Quartet of Middle East mediators, the word from diplomats was that it would be hard-hitting, especially on Israel and its settlement building.

The United States, the European Union and the United Nations were fed up with Israel’s consistent violation of international law, which views all settlements on occupied land as illegal, diplomats said. While Russia, the fourth Quartet member, might be more restrained, Israel was set for a serious ticking off.

Those concerns reached Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office. Officials briefed that he was determined to talk the Quartet down. He flew to Moscow to see President Vladimir Putin, and met U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in Rome.

In the end, after weeks of delay, the report was mild in the extreme. Israeli settlement-building was criticized but not called illegal. The prime focus was on Palestinian incitement. One regional analyst described the overall impact as “banal.”

Read more: http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/344233/how-israel-succeeds-in-watering-down-criticism-from-major-powers/