Peace talks in a tangle
HAVIV RETTIG GUR
FORGIVE me for wasting your time, dear reader. Carried on the Northern Hemisphere’s autumn breezes this September is the unmistakable aroma of a gathering diplomatic storm, a torrential rain of righteous rhetoric and pompous gatherings, full of sound and fury, signifying, well, you know ‚Ķ
I just thought you’d appreciate the warning.
Just when you thought you ¬≠couldn’t take one more news report about talking about talking in the Middle East, there is now new talk about holding “serious” talks between the Israelis, the Palestinians and the Arab states.
It’s nobody’s fault really. The Obama Administration, still untested in the gauntlet of geopolitical cynicism, wants to bring its celebrated talents — a more balanced perspective, the President’s personal charm, careful elocution, etc. — to this tangled conflict. Solve Israel/Palestine, Jimmy Carter keeps saying, and worldwide calm and contentment is sure to ensue.
Thus, in his recent tour of Europe, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu listened patiently as every single European leader he met made it a point to bring up the question of settlement construction. The White House, too, was reportedly upset by Netanyahu’s expected approval of the construction of some 500 apartments in already existing neighbourhoods in the already populated towns of Ma’aleh Adumim and Ariel.
Having asked Arab leaders for steps toward normalisation with Israel in exchange for the Israeli settlement freeze — and received an unceremonious “no” for an answer — the Obama Administration appears to be falling back on complaining about Israel’s refusal to surrender a negotiating asset in exchange for earning the right to hold the negotiations.
And just in case someone didn’t get the message, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, a stooge of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, told a press conference in Egypt on Sunday: “If we discover that someone normalised ties with Israel, I believe the reaction across the Arab world would be very violent.” Violent.
The Arabs “cannot speak of normalisation as long as Israel continues [settlement] construction,” he added for good measure.
And just in case you’re a lefty peacenik hippy like me who just wishes everyone could calm down and settle this already — and therefore you might be thinking that a settlement freeze is a reasonable demand on Moussa’s part -— he made sure to check that empathic instinct quickly.
In an interview with an Arab newspaper last Friday, he clarified that the Arab League’s demand includes the entire Old City of Jerusalem, even its Jewish Quarter — the area rebuilt by Israel after 1967 from the desecrated ruins left behind when the Jordanians tore down every last Jewish home and synagogue, leaving only a garbage heap as a message to the Jews. You know, the part of the city containing Judaism’s holiest spot.
So Moussa’s demand seems to be: before we talk about normalisation, even in theory, even with Obama, Israel must actually stop all construction and place its sovereignty over the Jewish Quarter and the Wailing Wall up for negotiations.
Some peace process Obama is bringing with him.
So why is every world leader worthy of the title taking the time to blast Israel, and Israel alone?
Hey, what else are they going to do? Complain about Palestinian self-ruination through kleptocratic corruption of historic proportions? “Speak truth to power” about ruthless Arab dictators that have no real national program except to remain in power by refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the very existence of the seven-million-member civilisation next door, while by the way refusing to teach their own populations literacy and science?
The tragedy, of course, is that it doesn’t matter how much the world criticises Israel, because the ball ¬≠hasn’t been in Israel’s court for almost a decade. There is little my country can do to Gaza —- good or bad -— that would give it real freedom from war and suffering, since it is ruled by men (and only men) who are moved to spiritual ecstasy by the thought of sacrificing a thousand Palestinian lives for the satisfaction of terrorising Israelis.
There may be even less Israel can do — good or bad -— to transform the West Bank’s Fatah leaders from a Somali street gang managing an entire nation primarily through extortion, to the savvy, moderate leadership Palestinians deserve and desperately need.
After all these years of back-and-forth, do I really still need to state for the record that I’m opposed to expanding settlements, support a viable Palestinian state and sincerely yearn for Palestinian happiness and independence?
It’s just that -— and forgive me for repeating once again -— we showed in Sinai and Gaza that we can withdraw, dismantle settlements and keep our side of any bargain.
In refusing to set its gaze firmly on Palestinian and Arab intransigence, the international community, with Obama currently in the lead, has committed two possibly irreparable mistakes: it has told the Israeli people that they can do no right, and the Palestinians that they can do no wrong.
Haviv Rettig Gur is the Jewish world reporter for The Jerusalem Post.
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