Kerry’s ‘big, bold’ push for peace
US Secretary of State John Kerry announced this week that he is launching a $4 billion plan to regenerate the Palestinian economy and – he hopes – provide the basis for sustainable peace.
His program is “bigger and bolder than anything proposed since the Oslo Accord”, he said, referring to the understanding signed between Israel and the Palestinians in 1993.
A group of international and regional experts, including Quartet envoy Tony Blair, formulated the plan, which is designed to cut Palestinian unemployment from 21 per cent to eight per cent within three years, and increase the GDP by 50 per cent. It comes as the Palestinian economy is in dire straits – and according to the World Bank, is “in danger of losing its capacity to compete in the global market”.
The World Bank report, released in March, found that the structure of the economy has deteriorated since the late 1990s, with productivity of the agriculture sector having roughly halving and the manufacturing sector largely stagnating.
Kerry said that his plan is not just a move to increase aid, but rather to come up with something “transformative” that will completely change the state of the Palestinian economy. It will be “different from anything ever seen before”.
In his opinion, “as long as prospects for economic advancement remain weak, so do the prospects for peace and stability”.
Israeli President Shimon Peres welcomed the plan, as did his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Abbas. Nevertheless, the Palestinians weren’t as optimistic as Kerry that the plan would prove a route to peace. “We’re almost 20 years after the Oslo agreement, and economic measures will not be the formula to sustain the conflict,” Ashraf Khatib, spokesperson for the Palestinian negotiating team, said in an interview with The AJN.
Khatib’s team said that the obstacle to peace isn’t economic, but simply the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to move forward negotiations. This is a criticism that Netanyahu rejects, saying that he is ready to negotiate but Palestinian preconditions are preventing the process from getting off the ground.
Kerry revealed his economic program at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa, after visiting Jerusalem, where he held several meetings, including a summit with Netanyahu to discuss Iran, Syria and the peace process. The forum was also the setting for important declarations by both Peres and Abbas.
Peres gave the first official Israeli response to a recent offer by Arab League countries to relax the demands they make of Israel in the Arab Peace Initiative.
“The Arab Peace Initiative is a meaningful change and a strategic opportunity,” Peres declared in a speech. “It replaces the strategies of war with the wisdom of peace. We must depart from the scepticism that claims that war is inevitable. War is not inevitable. Peace is inevitable.”
He also said: “We and our Palestinian neighbours must return to negotiations as soon as possible and bring peace. President Abbas, you are our partner and we are yours.” Peres continued by saying that he has the impression that Netanyahu, “like me, understands the opportunity which has been created”.
There was intense irritation on the right of Netanyahu’s Likud Party at Peres’s declaration. “I didn’t know that Peres became the government spokesman,” sniped Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is seen as close to Netanyahu. He claimed that a declaration “of this sort, certainly on the eve of negotiations, does not help Israel’s stance”.
Abbas’s big announcement at the World Economic Forum was that he rejects the idea, favoured by a growing number of analysts, of establishing a state in provisional borders and thrashing out the details of borders with Israel later. The perceived advantage is that it allows statehood without the pressure to reach a final status agreement that settles all matters of contention between Israel and the Palestinians.
“Please forget temporary borders,” Abbas said to Kerry. Instead, he insisted, the Palestinians are sticking to their longstanding demand of a state based on borders as they stood before the Six-Day War.
Peres and Abbas held a rare meeting at the Forum, during which Peres stressed that he is taking Kerry’s peace seriously.
“We must not miss the opportunity for peace, we must find a way to return to the negotiating table, only through negotiations will the disagreements be overcome,” Peres said.
NATHAN JEFFAY