It seems like a couple of billion dollars of free F-35 fighter planes doesn’t buy you a lot in the Middle East these days. Despite multiple incentive offers by the United States, Israel said thanks but “no thanks” to its closest ally. The US announced today that they would stop asking Israel to freeze building on the West Bank where the Palestinians want their future state.

This is a huge deal for the peace process because the Palestinians have said over and over that they will not negotiate while Jewish settlers are building on land they want …and now there is nothing on the horizon that will stop the building…meaning there is no reason to think there will be any more direct negotiations.

Last year, Israel imposed a 10-month settlement freeze as a cookie to get the Palestinians to the negotiating table. They came to the able in September with only 3 weeks left. There was of course all the usual pomp and circumstance in Washington where President Obama told both sides he wanted a deal in 1-year. The negotiations lasted all of three weeks till the freeze expired and the Palestinians walked away from the table. The US then offered everything from free jets to support at the United Nations for another freeze to get the Peace Talks going again.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has said over and over that a freeze would be politically impossible for him because of hardliners in his own government.

There is a big question here about how much influence the United States and President Obama now have that the talks have broken down and Prime Minister Netanyahu has publicly ignored the President’s requests; the Palestinians have already said they now want the EU to be involved in the next round of talks…if they happen.