Mideast peace talks in crisis
Saturday, 2 October 2010
THE rationale of the contention of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority (PA), that the current US-brokered peace talks between him and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank cannot go side by side is self evident. Accordingly, all concerned, including the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, urged Israel to extend the moratorium on settlement construction to give the peace talks a chance. But Israel has defied the whole world and lifted the 10-month moratorium on settlement construction on September 26, imperilling the peace talks. Had Abbas carried out his pre-talks threat that he would walk away from negotiation the moment freeze on settlement construction would be lifted, that would have spelt the end of the negotiations which are less than four weeks old.
Abbas has applied his better judgment and given America a week's time, until October 04, to salvage the talks. American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu are on telephonic conversations. US Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell has rushed to the Middle East to hold multilevel talks with regional leaders. He has already talked to Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barack. Washington is known to have been proposing to Tel Aviv various compromise formulas, including a US guarantee on certain matters, as an incentive for it to re-impose some sort of moratorium on settlement construction -- even a "non-freeze freeze" -- and thus avert the collapse of the negotiations. All these have so far fallen on Netanyahu's deaf ear. In fact, Netanyahu is surrounded by his extreme right-wing coalition partners in the government who are fanatical advocates of settlement construction. If he is really serious about his negotiations with Abbas, he would need to bring a change in the composition of his government.
Abbas, on his part, has opted for taking a collective decision on the future course of the negotiations. He will hold a meeting of the central committee of his Fatah, the largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and a meeting of the executive committee of the PLO. He will take his final decision after the summit meeting of the 22-member Arab League, scheduled to be held in Cairo on October 04 at his request. It was the Arab League which gave the green signal to Abbas to join the current negotiations with Israel while partial freeze on Israeli settlement construction was in force. A common Arab front will possibly be formed and Abbas will be in a better position to face up to the pressure of Washington which, in the first place, dragged him to the negotiating table though he always had doubts about the sincerity of Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, in his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, President Barack Obama presented an overtly optimistic view of the peace talks. He invoked the virtue of tolerance and said, "If we do [draw on traditions of tolerance common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity to forge peace], when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel." He, however, admitted that there will be "setbacks, and false starts, and tough days" and vowed "I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace." At the moment, his project of Middle East peace is in crisis and it is a battle of nerve between him and Netanyahu.
Abbas has applied his better judgment and given America a week's time, until October 04, to salvage the talks. American Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu are on telephonic conversations. US Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell has rushed to the Middle East to hold multilevel talks with regional leaders. He has already talked to Netanyahu and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barack. Washington is known to have been proposing to Tel Aviv various compromise formulas, including a US guarantee on certain matters, as an incentive for it to re-impose some sort of moratorium on settlement construction -- even a "non-freeze freeze" -- and thus avert the collapse of the negotiations. All these have so far fallen on Netanyahu's deaf ear. In fact, Netanyahu is surrounded by his extreme right-wing coalition partners in the government who are fanatical advocates of settlement construction. If he is really serious about his negotiations with Abbas, he would need to bring a change in the composition of his government.
Abbas, on his part, has opted for taking a collective decision on the future course of the negotiations. He will hold a meeting of the central committee of his Fatah, the largest group in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and a meeting of the executive committee of the PLO. He will take his final decision after the summit meeting of the 22-member Arab League, scheduled to be held in Cairo on October 04 at his request. It was the Arab League which gave the green signal to Abbas to join the current negotiations with Israel while partial freeze on Israeli settlement construction was in force. A common Arab front will possibly be formed and Abbas will be in a better position to face up to the pressure of Washington which, in the first place, dragged him to the negotiating table though he always had doubts about the sincerity of Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, in his maiden speech at the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, President Barack Obama presented an overtly optimistic view of the peace talks. He invoked the virtue of tolerance and said, "If we do [draw on traditions of tolerance common to Islam, Judaism and Christianity to forge peace], when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the United Nations -- an independent state of Palestine, living in peace with Israel." He, however, admitted that there will be "setbacks, and false starts, and tough days" and vowed "I will not waiver in my pursuit of peace." At the moment, his project of Middle East peace is in crisis and it is a battle of nerve between him and Netanyahu.