Portside

Has John Kerry no shame? First he cuddles up to both Palestinians and Israelis and announces the renewal of a "peace process" which the Palestinians don’t trust and the Israelis don’t want. Then Israel announces that it will build 1,200 new homes for Jews – and Jews only – on occupied Palestinian land. And now Kerry tells the Palestinians – the weak and occupied Palestinians – that they are running out of time if they want a state of their own.

Any other "statesman" involved in any other dispute who told an occupied people that if they didn’t make peace their occupiers would steal even more of their land, would be regarded as an outcast, a fellow thief, a potential criminal. But no. John Kerry announces that illegal Jewish colonies – or "settlements" as he likes to call them, along with the world’s Israel-compliant press – are "illegitimate". I think he meant internationally "illegal". But it doesn’t matter. In the first 10 years of the Oslo "process", the number of Israelis living on stolen Palestinian land doubled to 400,000. No wonder Kerry muttered that Israel’s latest theft announcement was "to some degree [sic] expected".

You bet it was. Israel has been running rings around cowardly US administrations for decades, ignoring Washington’s squirming embarrassment every time it went for another land grab on someone else’s property. The Oslo accords, remember, envisioned a five-year period in which Israelis and Palestinians would refrain from taking "any unilateral steps that would prejudice the outcome of the negotiations". Israel simply ignored this. As it still does. And what does Kerry advise the Palestinians? That they should not "react adversely"!

This is preposterous. Kerry must know – as the UN and the EU know – that there is not the slightest chance of "Palestine" existing as a state because the Israelis have already stolen too much land on the West Bank. Anyone who drives around the occupied territories realises at once (unless they are politically blind) that there is as much chance of building a state in the West Bank – whose map of colonies and non-colonised districts looks like the smashed windscreen of a car – as there is waiting for the return of the Ottoman Empire.

And Kerry? He’s a man whose every statement must be colonised by the word "sic". Take this, for example. "We have known [sic] that there was going to be a continuation of some [sic] building [sic] in certain [sic] places, and I think the Palestinians understand that." I suppose there should be a "sic" after "understand" as well. And then Kerry tells us that "what this" – he’s talking about the land theft – "underscores, actually [sic again], is the importance of getting to the table … quickly". In other words, do what you’re told now – or we’ll let the Israelis snatch even more of your property. In the real world, this is called blackmail.

Then came the ultimate lie: that the "question of settlements" is "best resolved by solving the problem of security and borders". Tosh. The colonies – or settlements, as Kerry goes on calling these acts of robbery – are not being taken by Israel because of "security" or "borders" but because the Israeli Right, which continues to dominate the Netanyahu administration, wants the land for itself. Many Israelis don’t. Many Israelis see the vileness of this land theft and condemn it. They deserve the peace and security which the world wishes them. But they won’t get it with colonisation, and they know it.

And Kerry isn’t on their side. He’s going all out for "peace" on Israeli government terms, and the Palestinians – "cabined, cribbed, confined" – have got to shut up and take what they can get. And they will be given a few small morsels. Twenty-six elderly prisoners will be handed over today. Crumbs for Mahmoud Abbas and his merry men. But more colonies for Israel, a country which hasn’t even told John Kerry – or us – where its eastern border is. On the old 1967 "green line"? Along the colony "line" east of Jerusalem? Or the Jordan river? But for Kerry, it’s "hurry, hurry, hurry". Book your seats now, or it will be a full house. What price "Palestine"?