That is the negotiating stance of the Palestinian Authority (PA.) The PA capo, Mahmoud Abbas, has made that abundantly clear. The centerpiece of the PA's current exercise in brinkmanship is the expiration of the temporary freeze on new construction in the Israeli "settlements." Abbas has stated categorically that if a single brick is laid or a single shovel of dirt moved, the talks are off. O-F-F.
The "settlers" are lined up, ready and willing, eager for the clock to run out. Bulldozers and builders are fired up, good for go. Feet are pawing the ground as fiery rhetoric fills the air over disputed land.
Facing a political crisis of major magnitude, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for "calm and restraint" on the part of the "settlers" as well as their supporters throughout Israel. The latter are predominantly members of Netanyahu's Likud Party or its rightwing coalition partners. Israelis of the Right have never been noted for their propensity for calmness and restraint.
On the other side of the hill, Abbas is seeking an "urgent" meeting of the Arab League so that a coordinated approach can be formulated assuming the moratorium will not be extended. This call came as the PA sent conflicting messages about its own stance on continuing the talks with Israel. A spokesman for the PA president averred that the PA would not pull out of the ongoing talks but warned that key members of the Fatah dominated group might do so. What that vague language might mean in the real world is unclear but at least one group, the Popular Front For the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), has announced it was suspending its participation in the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) as the PA was known in bygone days.
Further muddying the already turbid waters of Mideast diplomacy, the PA has suggested that Israel might release some seven thousand terrorists (Israeli view) or political prisoners (according to the PA) presently languishing in the custody of the Israel Prison Service. According to the PA, such a release would constitute a "good will gesture" serving to facilitate the peace talks.
Golly, is the mass release to serve as a surrogate for a continuation of the freeze? Or is this good will gesture to be in addition to the extension of the moratorium? Either way, the reintroduction of this ancient ploy will serve as a platform justifying further foot dragging by the rejectionists of the PA.
Abbas is probably sitting back with his hands folded across his Buddha-like belly, a suitably inscrutable smile on his face as he waits for the US to do the heavy lifting on his behalf. The Obama administration is apparently giving itself a rupture as it strains to do just that. Various spokespersons, including those of the exalted rank of presidential intimate such as David Axelrod, have made it clear that the administration owns the problem and is using all means at its disposal to do Abbas' bidding.
While the PA is making non-negotiable demands, it has shown a total unwillingness to consider compromises. There is a compromise available which would allow the speedy ending of the current impasse. The compromise would permit construction to resume at those "settlements" which will be on the Israeli side of the final border while prohibiting any in areas which will revert to PA rule.
To date Abbas has refused this approach. The PA insists that the final border, including all necessary land swaps, be achieved first. This is an unnecessary stipulation. The pattern of settlement is clear. Agreement was reached some time back on which blocks would go to Israel and which would remain in Palestine along with what land would be granted by Israel in compensation for the acreage occupied by the "settlements" incorporated into Israel. No skill at precognition was or is required to see, literally, the lay of the land.
The "borders first" requirement of the PA is simply one more exercise in obscurantist delay. Refusing the quite obvious and eminently logical compromise serves no useful purpose other than placating the slavering red meat eaters of the Palestinian extreme. The contention that this placatory stance is necessary to Abbas' political survival is arguable.
Perhaps as a reward for the intense American efforts on his behalf, Abbas has given some hint that there is some chance the talks will not be cancelled instantly in the event the freeze is not extended. Abbas has alluded to the necessity or at least the desirability of consulting with all stakeholders in the complicated PA structure as well as determining the will of the Arab League states. This is not much but it does provide a basis for holding some cautious optimism.
Then there is Netanyahu. He has very real political problems in play. His coalition is not all that tightly knit. His foreign minister represents a large strain of opinion which sees the slightest compromise on territory as an act of near treason. There is no support on the Right of Israeli politics for giving in to PA pressures, even when those pressures are applied by the US.
Nor does the behavior of the assorted extremists within the PA and its constituent factions give any assistance to Netanyahu. It is all well and good for Abbas to assert as he did yesterday that the Palestinian people will not respond with violence should the talks collapse. It is another matter when a pregnant Israeli is shot while driving on a highway near an Arab village in the West Bank.
earthmoving equipment and wreaking havoc somewhere in Israel.
Israelis have not been allowed to forget at any time since they evacuated the Gaza Strip that the threat of violent death is a constant companion. No country in modern history has been forced to live so long under such a high and pervasive level of fear. No sane Israeli would be given to place much reliance on either the words or the capacities of Abbas when it comes to matters of violent politics.
Nor can any Israeli ignore for a microsecond the primary reason he lives under a constant threat. It is because he is Jewish. The Jewish basis of Israel is the basis of the fear, loathing, and hatred which colors all aspects of Arab-Israeli relations, at least at the collective, the state level.
It is for this reason as well as the historical reality of the Holocaust which propels the Netanyahu requirement that the PA recognize Israel as a Jewish state. This is another issue on which Mr Abbas and the PA refuse to compromise. Their refusal is not trivial.
The PA president and his supporters such as Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak have claimed that the international recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would compromise the rights of non-Jews residing in Israel. Abbas has gone so far as to assert--contrary to fact--that the only reason Netanyahu has made his demand is as a preparatory move to the forced removal of all Arabs from Israel.
Some twenty percent of Israel's population is Arab in ancestry and language. It is a matter of easily available fact that these people have the same civil and political rights as their Jewish compatriots. This is not to imply that Arabs do not suffer discrimination and prejudice, they do. But it demonstrates that Israel is not cranking up some sort of genocide machine which will be running full blast the instant the PA formally recognizes that Israel is a Jewish state.
It is of more than passing interest that public opinion poll after public opinion poll has shown a marked reluctance of Israeli Arabs to move to the PA administered territory. It is equally worthy of note to acknowledge that the Arabs of Israel enjoy not simply a better standard of material existence than those resident in other countries, but they also possess political and civil rights which surpass by orders of magnitude those of other Arabs in other states.
These contextual matters demonstrate that the tender concern evidenced by Abbas and other Arab leaders for the present and future condition of Israeli Arabs is misplaced. The real deal is that Abbas and company hope that by refusing to grant this quite reasonable Israeli condition they will be able to derail the talks without taking any direct responsibility.
It would behoove the American (and European Union) efforts to bolster and facilitate the talks if the Israeli position on the "Jewish state question" would receive full-throated support. The identification of Israel as the Jewish state is historically justified. The need for a Jewish state was recognized universally in the wake of World War II. All non-biased observers agreed in those far gone days that the existence of a "Jewish state" would have gone far to prevent the Holocaust by providing both a refuge and a protector to the Jews threatened by Nazi policies.
It is not unreasonable nor counter-factual to contend that Jews in much of the world are under a threat as great today as was the case seventy-five years ago. The existence of Israel as a democratic and Jewish state is essential. The Obama administration must acknowledge this in the context of the current talks.
Coercive diplomacy is OK. It can be quite useful. But, as in the matter of the Israeli-PA talks, the coercion must be evenhanded. If it is appropriate to pressure Israel to limit the "settlement" construction, it is also proper to pressure the PA to accept the compromise outlined above. And, it is both apposite and necessary to lean on the PA to accept that Israel is a Jewish state, the Jewish state. This recognition must be clear, unambiguous and formal. Anything less is an ethical and realpolitik malfeasance.
Most of all, Mr Abbas must be brought to realize that negotiation is a two way street. It must be all of "our" ways or nothing good will result.
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