A Palestinian woman holds a Palestinian flag during a protest against the expansion of the Elon Moreh Israeli settlement in the village of Salem near Nablus on the West Bank, Friday, April 11, 2014. The Palestinians, along with much of the international community, view settlement construction as illegal and an obstacle to the creation of their hoped-for state.Nasser Ishtayeh/The Associated Press
The late Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations were supposed to run until April 29, and though U.S. mediators continue to meet with the two parties to try to resuscitate the talks, they are unlikely to find a pulse.
Indeed, Israel on Thursday shovelled soil into their grave when it announced it was withholding the monthly transfer of taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority. The money, amounting to many tens of millions of dollars a month, represents about two-thirds of the PA's income.
The action was taken as punishment for PA President Mahmoud Abbas's recent decision to sign 15 international conventions and treaties, an act seen by Israel as a breach of the agreement the PA made not to unilaterally seek further international recognition.
When the talks were underway last July, the American sponsors insisted on complete secrecy by both sides – no one was to go public with what was transpiring in the negotiations.
Now we know why: Nothing was going on.
Not only were the two sides not meeting face to face since early in November, but they achieved little of consequence – so little that the Palestinians thought they could do better by dumping the talks and going the international recognition route.
"We never expected anything to come from these talks," a Palestinian official told me. "But we owed it to the Americans to go along with them, at least for the nine months Kerry proposed."
Both sides appear to use the negotiations as cover for other interests: Israel wants to keep the West at bay while it deepens the roots of its West Bank settlements; the Palestinians want to continue to receive funding from the United States and European Union.
The thing is, there's no great demand from either side for a settlement and the establishment of Palestinian state.
In Israel polls show that about 2/3 of the people want a two-state solution, but they also show 2/3 don't want to pull out of the West Bank. Go figure.
The most recent surveys, taken after the talks collapsed, even show that support for the Israeli government's right wing parties rose as a result. If elections were held today, the Likud, Yisrael Beitenu and Jewish Home parties would get a total of seven more seats in parliament – that's one seat for every two international conventions Mr. Abbas signed two weeks ago.
In Ramallah last Saturday, having lunch with some friends, I was surprised by the attitude of some knowledgeable and influential Palestinians.
The public hadn't expected the talks to achieve anything, they said, and they cared more about their quality of life than anything that might come from a two-state solution.
One friend said she'd recently been to the town's new cinema (there hasn't been a cinema in Ramallah for decades) and saw a great new film Bethlehem, an Israeli production, of all things, dealing with the occupation. "It's fabulous," she said.
The film had been Israel's nomination for best foreign film in the Academy Awards, but it wasn't a finalist in the March awards.
When asked, my friend said she hadn't seen the Palestinian film Omar, on a similar subject, which had been a finalist.
Believe it or not, in Ramallah today, you can go see Mr. Peabody and Sherman, Need for Speed, The Lego Movie and The Monuments Men. The Russell Crowe film Noah, banned in Qatar and the U.A.E., is "coming soon."
The cinema, a six-screen multiplex capable of showing 3D films, is located in the Palestine Trade Tower, a 29-storey business and commercial tower with a shopping mall, hotel, 24-hour fitness centre and underground parking. On the roof is a revolving restaurant.
After several delays, the place has opened, business is good and the restaurant is turning. "It made me nauseous," one of my friends said.
This is what Palestinians care about now, my friend repeated: having a better life for themselves and their children.
"There is no thirst for an intifada," her husband added, referring to the two Palestinian uprisings in the late 1980s and early 2000s. And there's a lot of contempt for the corruption in the PA.
"We need lots of changes," he said, listing things such as freer movement in and out of the territory, improved business and better infrastructure. "But none of this requires a state of our own," he said to my surprise.
The Palestine these people foresee – for now, anyway – is strikingly similar to one I heard described by Israeli settlers.
Instead of a state of their own, Palestinians would have full economic rights and protection under Israel law, but they'd not have political rights.
In this scenario, the Gaza Strip, the other part of the Palestinian territories some 30 km to the southeast, would be hung out to dry, letting Hamas, the militant Islamic movement that controls the crammed coastal strip stew in its own juices. It will have to make its own arrangements with Israel, the people in Ramallah say.