Quartet Balancing Act

Well, the Quartet dinner in London yesterday did manage to produce a fairly comprehensive policy response to the elections in Palestine.

It obviously repeats some of the key demands on the future Palestine government, but doesn't say that all aid will be cut immediately if all of these demands are not fulfilled immediately.

It will "review" the issue. Fine. There is an element of flexibility in the choice of words that's obviously highle deliberate.

The key issue is to get distinct movement in the right direction, but it's hardly realistic to expect that all the conditions can be met immediately.

Interesting was that the Quartet in the same statement put demands also in the Israeli side:

"The Quartet reiterated its view that settlement expansion must stop, reiterated its concern regarding the route of the barrier, and noted Acting Prime Minister Olmert's recent statements that Israel will continue the process of removing unauthorized outposts. "

These were not new policies, but the fact that they were repeated in the same statement might make it somewhat more easy to get a receptive audience for the other parts of the message.

Good work, Quartet!

Quartet says aid to Palestinian government will be reviewed in light of key conditions