A Middle East peace that wreaks havoc: The Guardian
With the odds stacked so strongly in Israel’s favour, Palestinians rightly view the US talks with dread
Ghada Karmi
What an irony that the Palestinians’ arch-enemy, Israel, should also be their saviour. There is a real danger that the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks due to starton September 2 in Washington could yield a botched deal that falls far short of the needs of international law or elemental justice, and sets back the cause of Palestine for decades, if not for ever. Fortunately this will not happen as long as Israel’s obduracy can be relied on to save the Palestinians from such an outcome.
Time and again, when Israel was thrown a lifeline by Arab neighbours that could have ensured its legitimacy and security, its folly and greed lost it those opportunities. But, since they came at great cost to Palestinian rights, Israel’s obduracy had the perverse effect of safeguarding those rights. All peace proposals after 1967 were based on maintaining Israel as a regional power and forcing the Palestinians to settle for less than they were entitled to. They were repeatedly offered paltry settlements that legitimised Israel’s hold on most of their land and undermined their right of return. Had Israel agreed, the Palestinian cause would have been lost long ago.
When in the 1979 Camp David negotiations Egypt sought to give the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza a basis for a future independent state, Israel refused. It spurned a succession of Arab peace proposals, most recently the Saudi plan of 2002, offering Israel peace and recognition in return for a Palestinian state. And when, in the 1993 Oslo Accords, the PLO finally capitulated and accepted Israel’s occupation of Palestine’s remnants so long as it would enable the establishment of an independent state on this morsel, Israel responded by taking more land.
Decades of Israeli rejection and the reality of Israel’s western support finally persuaded the Palestinian leadership to get what it could. Where once Palestinians fought against dispossession and for their right to reparation and return, today’s browbeaten leadership has settled for a set of aspirations that bear little relation to rights or justice. It is this defeated leadership, reportedly under US pressure to attend or have Palestinian Authority funding withdrawn, which will take part in the talks.
The aim is a two-state settlement, which will supposedly end the conflict. The parameters are familiar from past (and, failed) peace proposals, and grossly unfair to the Palestinians. Historic Palestine will be partitioned roughly along the 1967 lines into a Jewish state on 78% of the land, plus an undefined area of the West Bank also to become Israeli, and a Palestinian state on the remainder – less than 20%. How much of East Jerusalem will go to the Palestinians has not been determined, and there will be no return of refugees.
Israel’s prime minister has set conditions before the talks. Israel will keep the Jordan Valley, Jerusalem will remain Israel’s undivided capital, and the Palestinian state must be unarmed, with its borders and airspace under surveillance. Nothing will happen unless the Palestinians first recognise Israel as Jewish and guarantee its security.
Despite such preliminaries, the indications are that Israel is not serious about a deal. Its moratorium on settlement building, which in any case excluded East Jerusalem, will end on 27 September. Israeli commentators are sceptical about Binyamin Netanyahu’s intentions. Moty Cristal, a former Israeli prime ministerial adviser, believes he “is buying time, looking for ways to stay away from action on the ground”. Nonetheless, President Obama, with mid-term elections looming, lacking a foreign policy success and focused on Iran, is determined to see a result.
How could that be achieved, within the constraints of an Israel that cannot be pressured and a weak, unrepresentative Palestinian leadership that excludes Gaza and Hamas? And since Israel’s position rejects all the main Palestinian requirements – land, Jerusalem, refugees – progress, if any, can only be made by demanding more concessions from the weaker side. This will mean less land available for the putative Palestinian state, reducing its viability. Hence Jordan’s and Egypt’s presence at the talks to work out a deal that provides an extension for the West Bank into Jordan, and Gaza into Egypt. No other permutation is possible. Israel will lose very little, but even this may be too much for its “greater Israel” proponents.
If some version of this scenario were to happen and the Palestinian side were bamboozled into agreeing, it would destroy the Palestinian cause and wreak havoc within Palestinian ranks. Such an outcome haunts many Palestinians, who neither trust nor respect the negotiators and think they might sign away Palestinians’ rights. This may be unfair, but they can rest assured that if there is any possibility of a peace deal emerging from Washington, the Israeli side – if not theirs – will never let it happen.
PA carries out ‘one of largest arrest waves of all time’ in West Bank: Haaretz
Crackdown on Hamas operatives in the region, in which more than 300 were arrested, follows deadly terror attack near Hebron.
Palestinian security forces carried out one of the largest waves of arrests in the history of the West Bank following Tuesday’s shooting attack near Hebron, in which four Israelis were killed, a Palestinian source said on Wednesday.
According to the source, more than 300 people identified with Hamas have been arrested by Palestinian Authority security forces since the attack.
Hamas’ armed wing claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s attack, which occurred on the eve of a fresh round of U.S.-backed peace talks.
The Hamas armed wing, the Iz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack from the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad vowed to prevent a repeat of such attacks. His Western-backed administration, which is set to resume peace talks with Israel on Thursday, is opposed to violence.
Tuesday’s shooting was the most lethal attack on Israelis in the West Bank in four years.
During a visit to a West Bank army base, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the military will do everything possible to quickly bring the perpetrators to justice. But he urged residents to show restraint.
Barak called on residents to show restraint. “We are in the midst of a long struggle for our right to live in security under a peace agreement with our neighbors,” Barak said.
A Palestinian security official, speaking on condition of anonymity under official guidelines, confirmed a crackdown was under way, but gave few details. He said the assailants from the shooting had not been found.
Hamas lawmaker Omar Abdel-Raziq said more than 150 members had been detained, and others had been summoned to police stations for questioning.
He accused Abbas of trying to please the Israelis.
“These are political arrests,” he said. “They are trying to tell the Israelis that they are capable of doing the job after the attack.”
Abbas, a Western-backed moderate, has carried out frequent crackdowns on Hamas since the Iranian-backed group defeated his forces and overtook Gaza three years ago. In turn, Hamas has frequently targeted members of Abbas’ Fatah movement in Gaza.
Four Israeli settlers shot dead on eve of White House talks: The Guardian
Hamas gunmen open fire on car along main road to West Bank city of Hebron in incident that could jeopardise vital peace talks
Israeli police investigate near where gunmen opened fire on a car near the West Bank Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
Hamas gunmen shot dead four Israeli settlers on the outskirts of the volatile West Bank city of Hebron tonight in a move that could jeopardise the first face-to-face talks between Israel and the Palestinians for more than 20 months.
The armed wing of the Islamic organisation, which is virulently opposed to the negotiations, claimed responsibility for the “heroic operation” in which its militants attacked a car on a main road close to the city. The army said that the victims were two men and two women, one of whom was pregnant, who were from a nearby settlement.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said troops were at the scene, evacuating the bodies and searching the area, which was designated a closed military zone.
“The vehicle was sprayed with dozens of bullets,” an ambulance worker told Israeli television. “There were numerous shell casings around.”
A spokesman for the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, was quoted by Reuters as saying that the shooting was “a chain in a series of attacks, some have been executed, and others will follow”.
Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, said measures would be taken to prevent further attacks. “We condemn this operation, which goes against Palestinian interests,” he said in a statement.
The killings will dent hopes that peace talks, due to start in Washington with a White House dinner tomorrow night, can succeed in bringing a resolution to the conflict.
It will dismay the Palestinian Authority which has striven to prove security in the West Bank is under its control, and will increase tension between Fatah, the dominant political organisation on the West Bank, and its Gaza counterpart, Hamas.
Commentators have noted in recent weeks that the huge reduction in attacks by Palestinian militants provides an auspicious context for peace negotiations.
The White House, which has staked considerable political capital on the negotiations, will also be furious that tonight’s attack could scupper months of work to bring the two sides together.
A spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, Jonathan Peled, warned that the attack would have an impact on the negotiations: “This terror act is a clear sign of the imperative need for us to ensure that if Israel’s security needs are not addressed, it’s going to be very, very difficult to begin making concessions in the West Bank,” he said.
Hebron, a turbulent city in which a core of hardline ideological Jewish settlers are protected by hundreds of Israeli troops amid a Palestinian population of more than 100,000, has been the scene of numerous violent attacks from both sides of the conflict.
The Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, today travelled to the US capital against a backdrop of opposition, cynicism and indifference among their respective populations despite President Obama’s insistence that a comprehensive peace deal can be reached within 12 months.
Tomorrow’s dinner, scheduled for the relatively late time of 8pm to accommodate guests fasting during daylight for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, will also be attended by King Abdullah of Jordan, the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, and the Middle East quartet envoy, Tony Blair.
Formal discussions, chaired by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, will begin on Thursday before moving to the Middle East later this month.
Although the talks were intended to begin without preconditions, both sides have set out early demands which have the potential to derail the process.
The most immediate issue is the looming end on 26 September of a partial moratorium on settlement construction, reluctantly agreed by Netanyahu last November. The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of the talks unless the Israelis agree to extend the freeze, saying settlement building is fatally undermining the prospects of a viable state.
Netanyahu has said repeatedly – most recently at Sunday’s cabinet meeting – that there is “no change” in the Israeli position, indicating that the freeze will end on schedule. He is under pressure from the rightwing members of his coalition to allow construction to resume.
Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian chief negotiator, told reporters in Ramallah last week that Israel “faces a choice between settlement activity and the path of peace”. He added: “If [Netanyahu] decides to restart construction, he will have chosen to end the negotiations.”
The Israeli prime minister cancelled a session of his inner cabinet which was expected to discuss the future of the freeze just before flying to Washington, suggesting he was unwilling to be pressed into a commitment.
He told members of his Likud party yesterday that he believed a peace deal was possible. “I am not naive. I see all the difficulties and hurdles and despite this, I believe that a final peace agreement is a reachable objective.”
Abbas is facing considerable opposition to the talks among Palestinians. A protest rally in Ramallah last week ended in disarray, when plainclothes security officials sparked a fracas. Fayyad this week apologised for the incident. A further rally is planned for tomorrow.