Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks Start Again

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright August 14, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                      

             Beginning the latest round of Mideast peace talks under the dark cloud of more missile attacks from the Gaza Strip, 77-year-old Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and 64-year-old Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave their blessings to latest round of peace talks.  Both parties know that they negotiate at their peril with Hamas’ 52-year-old leader Ismail Haniyeh, vowing to continue armed conflict with IsraeL.  If Abbas and Netanyahu can reach an historic agreement on an independent Palestinian state, they would maginalize over 1.5 million Palestininans committed to Israel’s destruction living in the Gaza Strip.  Calling the new peace talks “serious, intensive and intimate negotiations,” an unnamed Israeli official refused to release any details over the negotiations, including the specific whereabouts of the talks to protect disruptions.

             Putting 55-year-old former Israeli foreign Minister Tzpi Livni and special Netanyahu envoy Isaac Molho in charge of the talks assures the best chances of success.  Having been to the last rodeo in 2000, Abbas put senior Palestinian negotiators Saeb Erekat and Mohammed Shtayyeh in charge, also bringing a wealth of experience but, more importantly, the realization that life cannot continue for Palestinians in an endless state of war.  When Erekat tried but failed to deliver peace as the later PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s main negotiator in the waning days of the Clinton administration, he saw the destructive aftermath of Arafat declaring another useless intifada or uprising.  Giving valuable perspective, U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk hopes to provide both sides the wisdom to make the right decisions.  What killed the deal in 2000 is no longer a deal-breaker in 2013.

             Fighting for the right-of-return in 2000, Arafat was pushed by Hamas Founder blind paraplegic Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’s refusal to give in on Palestinian’s right-of-return.  Palestinians today understand that Israel won’t return to the pre-1948 borders dictated by the British Mandate of Palestine, which didn’t included the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula.  U.S., Israeli and Palestinian negotiators know today that Israel isn’t likely to retreat to the original pre-1967 Six Day War borders.  Palestinians claim all of Israel’s spoils from the 1967 War as land for a future Palestinian state, knowing that Israel isn’t likely to surrender the strategic Golan Heights.  Israel knows that rockets flying into Southern Israel from the Gaza Strip don’t come from Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.  Israel also knows that Hamas continues to call for the destruction of Israel.

             Whatever problems exist with Hamas in Gaza, Abbas has his own problems accepting the facts-on-the-ground, including more Jewish settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  Netanyahu has made it clear that all negotiations about future building in the so-called “occupied territories” should be part of a meaningful peace negotiation.  “We are dealing with thieves who steal the land and do not respect any human or international rules,” said PLO spokesman Yasser Abed Rabbo, reacting to Israel’s building on what Palestinian’s see as a future state.  Instead of overstating the problem, Rabbo should review his history book to note sovereign Palestinian land before the 1967 Six Day War.  While he’d like to stake claim on the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, West Bank and Golan Heights, Palestinians had no sovereign land before the 1967 War, claiming ownership only after Israel annexed the territory.

             Rabbo needs to understand the difference between feeling entitled to the land and actually holding sovereignty.  Fighting the old argument about the “right-of-return” or going back to the pre-1967 borders won’t bode well for Palestinian’s future state.  Getting a future state hinges on creating as much good will as possible before going to the peace table.  Calling Israelis “thieves” for building on spoils of the 1967 war assumes that Palestinians held sovereignty, which, in fact, they didn’t.  If Israel broke off negotiations and returned the West Bank to Jordan and Golan Heights to Syria, Rabbo would have no land on which to build a future state.  Abbas has little clout with Hamas’ Ismail Haniyeh to cede Gaza back to the PLO for a future state.  Abbas’ only hope now is creating a state in what’s recognized as Israeli spoils from the Six-Day-War, since Hamas shows no signs of budging.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.