[bamaborn]

This goes along with my premise of why the Israelis are withdrawing in the first place.

They are well aware that war is imminent. So, in my opinion, they are making all of these concessions so that when that time comes, they will be in a position to say that they(Israel) did everything they could to make peace.

I believe this 'faux diplomacy' is an effort to stave off as much retaliatory action as possible from neighboring Arab countries once the war 'starts'.

[Nachum]

I believe this 'faux diplomacy' is an effort to stave off as much retaliatory action as possible from neighboring Arab countries once the war 'starts'.

Not only the Arab countries, but the left in Israel too. The problem with this line of thinking is that the left has been trying to relieve themselves of all the territory taken in the '67 war since that time. It has been a relentless, non-stop political attack.

There is no satisfying the hunger of the left, or the neighboring Arab countries, or the EU or the pacifists in the US state dept., IMHO. That is why all of this is foolish and futile. The status quo is bad, but this is worse.

[Americanexpat]

I believe you are right, only I believe it is to stave off criticism from Europe. "See we tried it your way, but it didn´t work."

I do not think Isreal could do anything that would make the Arabs happy.