Whenever the Israelis and the Palestinians agree to talks, I become hopeful for peace in that region, at last. However, I am highly skeptical that any progress toward peace will be achieved for several reasons.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Barack Obama on September 1, before formally resuming direct negotiations the following day at the State Department in Washington.
"There have been difficulties in the past, there will be difficulties ahead," Clinton said in a statement.
Clinton added that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah also were invited to the talks, which will mark the first direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in 20 months.
"I ask the parties to persevere, to keep moving forward even through difficult times and to continue working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region," Clinton said.
Clinton’s announcement was echoed by the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators — the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations — which issued its own invitation to the talks and underscored that a deal could be reached within a year.
Netanyahu quickly accepted the U.S. invitation and said reaching a deal would be possible but difficult.
"We are coming to the talks with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel’s national security interests, foremost of which is security," a statement from his office said.
After a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, the Palestinian leadership announced its acceptance of the invitation for face-to-face peace talks with Israel.
SETTLEMENT ISSUE
But Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, warned that the Palestinians would pull out of the new talks if the Israelis allow a return to settlement building on lands that the Palestinians seek for a future state.
Israel’s 10-month moratorium on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank is due to end on September 26.
The invitation to the talks "contains the elements needed to provide for a peace agreement," Palestinian leaders said.
"It can be done in less than a year," Erekat said. "The most important thing now is to see to it that the Israeli government refrains from settlement activities, incursions, fait accomplis policies."
The two sides are coming together for talks after decades of hostility, mutual suspicion and a string of failed peace efforts.
The Quartet statement was aimed at the Palestinians, who believe that the group’s repeated calls for Israel to stop building settlements in the West Bank and accept a Palestinian state within the borders of land occupied since the 1967 Middle East war are a guarantee of the parameters for the talks.
Clinton’s invitation was aimed at Netanyahu, agreeing with his demand that the talks should take place "without preconditions" and giving little sense of any terms that the Israeli leader fears could box him in.
The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza and refuses to renounce violence against Israel, said the proposed peace talks would do nothing to help the Palestinian cause. U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Hamas would have no role in the peace talks… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Reuters>
First, I see little hope that Israel will extend the moratorium on settlement building. The right wing members of the coalition have threatened to bring down the government, unless settlement building continues on schedule. They apparently have received assurances that it will.
Second, there can be no peaceful settlement without Hamas. Although I disagree with their refusal to renounce violence against Israel, Hamas remains the democratically elected government of Palestine. In addition, Israel’s violence against Gaza has been far more devastating. Of course Hamas is against the talks, since the US and Fatah excluded them.
Third, although the people of Israel want peace, the government of Israel does not. Netanyahu has bragged openly that he has undermined the Oslo Accords that guarantee a two state solution. He would prefer a fait accompli through construction.
In conclusion, I wish them every success, but don’t hold your breath waiting for it.
6 Responses to “Can Middle East Peace Talks Succeed?”
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To answer your question in a word, No… I don’t believe a damn thing will come out of it. Israel has no intention of giving up one square inch of land.
That’s whay I think, Tim, at least the Netanyahu government does not.
As long as Netanyahu is PM it will never happen. He is a third generation Israeli terrorist. If the US doesn’t denounce and halt the building of settlements by withholding the billions of dollars we send them every year, including sanctions on American churches who send Israel money, there is not a prayer that a separate Palestinian state will EVER exist.
Good point about the Republican religious right churches, Mark.
Unless the US withholds aid to Israel pending an end to the occupation, nothing will change. The Israeli government is determined to commit ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.
I agree and have long held that the US should withoild aid to Israel until Israel abides by Oslo.