Jordan’s King Abdallah urged decision-makers to act swiftly bearing in mind the new Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert’s intention to unilaterally delineate Israel’s permanent borders by 2010. “I fear if this short time is over and we don’t reach a settlement there will be nothing left for the Palestinians to negotiate over,” the King said.
King Abdallah is right. Although Olmert is engaged in dismantling small settler outposts on the West Bank, there are plans to enlarge bigger colonies, such as Maale Adumim and Ariel, which would effectively cut off Jerusalem. At the same time, Palestinians are being refused access to the Jordan Valley.
Presently the situation is one of stalemate. The Israelis want Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist, give up its weapons and ratify previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority. As Hamas leaders have pointed out, an occupied nation has a right under international law to resist and, in any case, Israel has neglected to abide by those same agreements.
Israel says it does not have a partner for peace and, therefore, it has little choice but to continue building its “separation fence”. Hamas says that even if it accepted Israel’s conditions, there are no guarantees the Israelis would return to the peace table bearing in mind that the then Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was vilified while the current one Mahmoud Abbas has been ignored.
In the meantime, most major Western powers have joined forces with the Israeli occupier in an attempt to topple the democratically elected Hamas-led Palestinian government by literally starving its people into submission. The Arab League and several Muslim countries are willing to come to the rescue with hefty donations but banks, fearful of Western retribution, are scared to transfer funds.
“We hope our Palestinian brothers and especially our brothers in Hamas deal with everything that relates to the Palestinian’s cause with complete realism and take into account the position of the world around us as well as many facts and developments that cannot be ignored or reversed,” said the Jordanian monarch.
Reading between the lines it seems that the king wants Hamas to submit to Israeli and US demands in a spirit of pragmatism. But then what? Will Hamas be removed from the terrorism blacklist? Will the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority be accepted into the international fold? Will Israel return to the policy of land for peace and negotiate its final borders?
The new Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz, a dovish former rose grower, recently said this: “To our Palestinian neighbors we say ‘not through the path of terror will you accomplish your goals. You must abandon terrorism, combat incitement and then you will again find the hand of the Israeli government extended toward you with a readiness to reach agreements with the price of painful concessions.”
Peretz has been a longtime proponent of peace, but it’s doubtful that he speaks for the entire Israeli leadership.
Imagine that Hamas along with the other militant groups decided to toe the line announcing their recognition of the Jewish state and surrendering their arms. Would this guarantee a functioning Palestinian state with control over its own borders, shoreline and airspace? Or would the Palestinian people be even more vulnerable than they are now with the Israelis empowered to do their worst?
The stark reality is this: In the eyes of the West, Israel can do no wrong. Even on those rare occasions that Israel receives a rap on the knuckles in the form of UN Security Council resolutions, it simply carries on regardless because all of those non-Chapter VII resolutions have been toothless.
Here it is worth recalling the international censure over Jenin when more than 10 percent of the refugee camp was demolished and Israel’s use of human shields was prevalent. The UN set up an investigatory team; Israel said “we don’t want you” and that was that.
A major obstacle to Middle East peace is the US. As long as Israel has a burly big brother on the block looking out for its interests, it can act with impunity. Since the day when George Bush announced his “road map” upon the urging of Britain’s Tony Blair in an attempt to bring the Muslim world on board the invasion of Iraq, Washington has dropped the plate. Today it’s as if Camp David, Oslo and the road map never happened.
It’s clear the US, Britain and the EU are no longer impartial or effective intermediaries, so we should desist in framing them as such. In this case, the Arab world should become more proactive not least because what happens in Palestine affects the entire region.
In March 2002 during an Arab League Summit held in Beirut, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah (then crown prince) presented a sensible peace plan that called for Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 borders and allow the return of Palestinian refugees in return for normal relations between Israel and all its Arab neighbors.
Israeli leaders are fond of saying that the Palestinians never fail to miss the opportunity of missing an opportunity. But when the Arab peace plan was floated, Israel waved it aside. Now if Israel truly wanted peace and security wouldn’t this all-encompassing peace plan be the perfect solution?
As the clock ticks, it is surely time for Arabs to present a united stand. The Arab League should seriously resurrect this offer and send a top-level representative to Tel Aviv to discuss the fine print.
This can no longer be seen as an Israel-Palestine dispute. That hasn’t borne fruit. In fact, it is actually an Israel/US-Palestine standoff, which translates to the Palestinians being outnumbered and outmaneuvered.
So let the Arab world represent big brother to the Palestinians to counter US influence. They may not have big bombs but they do have fat bank accounts, whopping US investments and, in some cases, host US bases. It’s time for Arabs to tell Israel “If you’ve got anything to say, talk to us. We’re all Palestinians”.
