Middle East peace remains elusive dream

Outlook

(13-11-2009)

by Chu Lan Huong

Middle East peace remains elusive dream

The world community, especially its Arab members, still embraces the prospect of a renewed impetus for the Middle East-peace process that has been stalled for two years.

But reality shows the chances of it happening are not good.

The talks between US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington earlier this week intended to revive the Palestine-Israel peace talks indicate the enormity of the task.

No significant progress was the accepted finding after their closed-door meeting ended.

Netanyahu had said before the talks that he was ready to immediately engage in peace negotiations, but the results proved otherwise.

The failure of the two men to make a public appearance after their two-hour meeting – a customary gesture after a meeting between a US President and an Israeli Prime Minister – is open to interpretation.

It could be understood as no more than a result of the tough stance taken by the Israeli.

But it could also signal the final collapse of any peace agreement between Palestine and Israel – the cornerstone of the Obama administration’s Middle East policy.

The world community concedes the willingness of the new president’s administration to re-start the peace talks.

Marred effort

Unfortunately, inconsistencies have marred the effort.

Initially, the administration supported a total freeze of the building of new Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as a precondition for any peace talks with the Palestinians.

"The policy of the United States government for many decades has been: no more settlements, that’s not something that is new [with] this administration," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.

But now the administration has called for peace talks without any preconditions. This inconsistence, together with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s description of Netanyahu’s offer to a limited easing of settlement construction as "unprecedented" during a visit to the Middle East region last week, has fuelled Arab, especially Palestinian fury.

Not surprisingly after months of pressing Israel to stop the expansion of its settlements, her assertion was interpreted as a U-turn that appeared to switch the onus for restarting the talks from the purveyors of an action the world community considers illegal, to those whose lands have been occupied.

Although Prime Minister Netanyahu has expressed his willingness to renew the peace talks and improve the Palestinian economy, negotiations are impossible because the issue at the heart of the never-ending conflict, the expansion of Israeli settlements, has not been addressed. "Violence will rush in to fill the void left by the failure of efforts to re-launch the peace process if the US administration does not hurry up and exert pressure on the Israeli government," warned Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is so disappointed with Washington’s about face that he announced he could decide not to seek re-election next year.

Nothing happening

"I think he is realising that he came all this way with the peace process in order to create a Palestinian State, but he sees no State coming," said chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat.

"He really doesn’t think there is a need to be president or to have an authority. This is not about who is going to replace him. This is about our leaving our posts."

The going of Abbas would likely end the limited self-government for the Palestinian territories as defined in the now defunct 1993 Oslo Accords.

It would also end all hope of a resolution to the conflict.

The likely successor to Abbas is the militant Islamists of Hamas who have always insisted that armed struggle must not be abandoned.

Veteran Israeli president and former Prime Minister Shimon Peres has quickly recognised the danger if Abbas executes his threat not to contest the January election.

"We both signed the Oslo Accord," he said. "Don’t let go."

Although the Oslo Accord ultimately failed to bring lasting peace to Israel and the Palestinians, it paved the way for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation to return to the West Bank and the creation of the a Palestinian Authority.

If the Palestinian Authority were to be abandoned, international law would likely oblige Israel to extend the scope of its occupation and retake control of social services.

It would also effectively end all hopes for a two-State solution.

The US must become an honest broker if peace in the Middle East is to remain no more than an elusive dream. — VNS