Reuters - Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Tuesday threatened severe financial ramifications if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas makes good on a plan to request U.N. membership for a Palestinian state this week.

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If I pulled that one on my neighbour it would be called blackmail.

And still people wonder why negotiations and diplomatic talks fail down there..

I think it fair to say that negotiations fall over there because they are disingenuous it is all a big con job to reduce the chances of ever achieving a settlement as you can not expand your borders if you cant get land to to expand into and recognising Palestine ends the growth of Israel.

So what you do is you is offer unpalatable deals (you can have 3 square meters here, 2 over there and that half dead cactus) but they will not be "formal borders" and you are not allowed to defend yourselves (that way we can flog a bit more land when we need a new settlement) and then act all disappointed when the Palestinians say "F**k off" and start spouting on about Palestinian intransigence.