Everything you need to know about the dismal low-point the Palestinian national cause has reached can be found in the only political ally President Mahmoud Abbas could find for his diplomatic foray to the United Nations this week: an ex-convict forced to resign in disgrace and serve time for receiving bribes and obstructing justice.
Sitting beside Ehud Olmert in New York on Tuesday, Mr Abbas said he was “fully ready to resume negotiations where we left it with Mr Olmert, under the umbrella of the Quartet”, as if 12 years had not elapsed since those talks were broken off and nothing had happened since.
Where to begin?
Setting aside everything that befell the former Israeli PM since the last time the two men met, it’s worth noting that in those days the US president under whose auspices their talks took place was George W. Bush.
Since then, we had eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency, with all its great hopes and disappointments, and we’re now in the fourth year of Donald Trump’s term.
At the beginning of the Obama presidency, Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the two-state solution and became the first and only Israeli prime minister to freeze settlement building for nearly a year.
We had John Kerry’s quixotic attempt to broker a peace deal. And then Mr Trump ripped up the rulebook, recognising Israel’s claims to East Jerusalem and the settlements.
Mr Abbas is right in many of his criticisms of the Trump Plan and Mr Olmert was correct in saying that the only the two nations can achieve peace is through direct negotiations.
But the major flaws in the Trump plan, rendering it a non-starter, do not mean the clock can be turned back. The Palestinians have not held an election over the past 12 years, but Israel has held five, very soon six, and the US has had three. Mr Abbas is still Palestinian president but political realities elsewhere have changed.
“The Quartet” whose umbrella he yearns for exists now only on paper. Its main sponsor, the European Union, is focused on its internal troubles and the main European powers including Britain were busy this week watering-down the UN resolution Mr Abbas hoped for until it was withdrawn.
If Mr Abbas is so eager to go back to 2008, it’s also legitimate to ask why he turned down Mr Olmert’s offer, which included 25 per cent more of the territory of the West Bank than is offered in the Trump Plan, dismantlement of isolated settlements, and Palestinian sovereignty in east Jerusalem and Al Aqsa.
The more charitable view of his actions is that he didn’t turn down the Olmert plan, he just waited for political developments in Israel, as Mr Olmert was on his way out. But Mr Abbas himself said, back then, that he hadn’t accepted because “the gaps were wide.” He waited 12 years for a better offer and now he has the Trump Plan.
Mr Olmert’s motive for participating in the farcical event on Tuesday is clear: tainted by his conviction, he is denied the five-figure speaking fees and seven-figure book contract he may have expected as a former prime minister.
Even his oldest friends in Israeli politics — Yair Lapid remains close — will not be seen with him in public. He is desperate for rehabilitation and will do anything to try and resurrect his image as a statesman.
But if Mr Abbas thinks he has anything to gain from holding a joint press conference with him, the Palestinians are in even bigger trouble.
