Peace Negotiations Update 2
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah II attended the official launch of the direct talks in Washington. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted in the Iranian media on Tuesday as saying that the Arab leaders launching a renewal of negotiations with Israel are traitors to their people.
Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, also criticized the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. In a speech he gave on Friday in honor of pro-Palestinian "Jerusalem Day," Nasrallah said that "these negotiations were born and have died … Palestine, from the river to the sea, is the property of the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the Muslims, and no person has the right to give any of it away, not a grain of sand or a drop of water." Nasrallah blessed the Hamas for the attacks it carried out this past week and said, "This is the message, and this is the way to liberate Jerusalem and Palestine. Hamas and other resistance fighters of their kind should hear voices of support from the entire Arab and Muslim world."
Ezzat al-Rashk, a senior member of Hamas's political office, told the London-based Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper on Saturday that Hamas is committed to an armed struggle against Israel. "Attacking settlers is a natural thing," al-Rashk told Al-Hayat on Saturday, saying the "Zionist settlers are the occupation's first reserve military force … "They are a real army in every sense of the word". Al-Rashk also referred to the ongoing attempt to relaunch talks between Israel and the PA, saying they were no more "than a media circus through which the U.S. administration wants to market its policy." Another Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, the organization's Lebanon spokesperson, told the London-based newspaper that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was willing to forfeit "99 percent of the Palestinians' rights, saying negotiations were over before they even began.
Al-Hayat also stated that the Palestinian delegation had expressed satisfaction with the Americans' intention to include all of the core issues in the peace agreement that is supposed to be finalized before the end of 2011. Arab League Chairman, Amr Moussa, expressed cautious optimism on Friday that the current round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be the final round. According to Moussa, participating in an economic conference in Italy, the Arab world is read for comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal to the 1967 borders, including in East Jerusalem.
A majority of the Israeli public is supportive of negotiations and will support a compromise, on condition that the State’s security is assured and the peace achieved is a real one.
Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been forced to Washington and are being required to achieve what many consider impossible: a full-orbed peace agreement within a period of 12 months. US President Barak Obama is in as much need of such an agreement as are the two more obvious contestants – he wants to be re-elected. As things appear, it would take something like such an historic achievement to make a second-term Obama presidency possible.
Whatever may be the motives and whatever may have brought Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table, this effort is not an exercise in futility.
On the Israeli side, Netanyahu’s Government is the most right-wing Government Israel as ever had. Over 25% of Knesset members are also members of the Cabinet. Netanyahu himself is one of the weakest, so-far demonstrably incapable Prime Minister Israel has ever had. But a majority of Israelis (over 70% by the recent poll) would agree to painful territorial compromises in exchange for a viable peace. What is more, Netanyahu will have no difficulty in obtaining a large parliamentary majority to ratify such an agreement. If it meant the collapse of his [present Government, he would be in a stronger position to run again in the ensuing elections, and most likely to win.
On the Palestinian side, nothing would strengthen Abbas’ position more than such an agreement. He has also shown that he has what it takes to lead his people to a compromise. He opposed violence while Arafat was still in power, yet was elected to his present post. He has taken control of the West Bank, removed armed militias from the streets and asserted his Government’s authority. He has raised the average standard of living to a level higher than it has ever been, immeasurably improved the infrastructure, and maintained a lull in violence against Israelis (until the recent attacks, perpetuated by his opponents in an effort to embarrass him). During Israel’s operation in Gaza, the West Bank witnessed no riots and demonstrations were reasonable and well controlled. Although not as charismatic as Arafat, he has withstood efforts to unseat him and seems to still be held in high regard both by the populace and by his would-be political rivals.
What is more, few developments are more likely to weaken Hamas than a peace agreement that was considered acceptable by a majority of Palestinians in the West Bank. It would isolate Hamas (and Hezbollah), weaken Iran’s influence (clearly a priority for all but the Iranians) and enable the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to appeal all the more to the oppressed residents of Gaza.A contrary argument can easily be made, but it seems that the achievement of sustainable peace is in the interests of all concerned, certainly those of the two parties most directly affected by the results of the forced negotiations. All that is needed is courage.
