JERUSALEM, 8 February 2005 — After more than four years of relentless bloodshed, prospects for a historic breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have probably never been higher, as the two sides lay final groundwork for their summit today in Egypt.
The gathering in the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh has the great advantage of momentum already generated by significant reciprocal gestures.
In the mere four weeks since the election of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israel and the Palestinians have made more concessions to each other than they had in the entire course of the conflict that has gone on for 52 months. Israel on Thursday announced plans to withdraw its forces from five Palestinian cities in coming weeks, free 900 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails and weigh amnesty terms for wanted fugitives.
Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will be meeting for the first time since Abbas took office.
Although the summit is welcomed on both sides, Israelis and Palestinians are keenly aware of the inherent artificiality of such an event, so at odds with the visceral reality of Palestinian suicide bombings and massive Israeli military raids.
“I understand why a summit is needed and desired,’’ commentator Smadar Peri wrote in the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot daily newspaper Thursday. “But when the cameras are turned off, we will have to return to a certain reality.’’
In June 2003, optimism greeted a four-way summit held in Aqaba, Jordan, to formally inaugurate the “road map’’ peace plan. Placing his own prestige on the line, Jordan’s King Abdallah II played host to President Bush, Sharon and Abbas, who was then Palestinian prime minister. Less than two months later, the promise of that moment had dissolved in a new round of recriminations and bloodshed.
The key difference now is the absence of Yasser Arafat, who died Nov. 11. Israel accused him of sabotaging the Aqaba summit by systematically undermining Abbas and giving Palestinian militant groups the go-ahead to press on with attacks against Israel. “The last few years made it clear to most living here, and neighboring countries, that the true obstacle in the way of a reasonable, regulated process that will result in a two-state solution was Arafat, and now the arena has changed,’’ said Gilad Sher, an Israeli official and veteran negotiator of past peace accords.
The Sharon of today is different, too. At the Aqaba summit, he had yet to unveil his plan to relinquish the Gaza Strip against the wishes of Jewish settlers and their right-wing supporters, who were once his most loyal partisans.
In the wake of the Aqaba summit, the Israeli leader chipped away at Abbas’ standing by refusing to grant concessions that would have given him much-needed credibility among his people. Israel, too, sloughed off its early obligations under the road map, including the dismantling of illegal settlement outposts in the West Bank.
This time around, Abbas is likely to be far more guarded in his public dealings with Sharon.
Analyst Shalom Harari, a brigadier general in the Israeli Army reserves, said he believed the decision to have their initial post-election encounter take place in the context of a four-leader summit was aimed at quashing any notion that Abbas was kowtowing to the Israeli leader.
“For the time being, it’s better for him not to even be seen alone with Sharon, if it’s under the umbrella of (Egypt’s President Hosni) Mubarak and Abdallah, it’s OK,’’ Harari said. “They can talk freely on the phone, sure, but Abu Mazen knows that appearing too close to Sharon too soon could be very damaging.’’
Still, Abbas surprised Israel with the speed of his moves to quell attacks by militant groups. Within days of taking office, he deployed Palestinian paramilitary forces and negotiated a tentative truce with militant groups such as Hamas.
In response, Israel dramatically decreased military activity and made pledges to increase Palestinian freedom of movement and reopen a key commercial checkpoint into the Gaza Strip.
While little substantive negotiation is expected at the summit, both sides hinted Thursday that its centerpiece might be a declaration of truce, built on nearly three weeks of relative calm.
“I hope there will be an official declaration of an armistice, on the cessation of all acts of violence,’’ Shimon Peres, Israel’s vice premier, told Army Radio on Thursday.
Abbas echoed that, telling reporters in Ramallah: “We hope to God this will happen.’’
As part of the package of pre-summit confidence-building measures announced Thursday, Sharon’s senior advisers approved the formation of a joint Israeli-Palestinian committee to work out terms for an amnesty for some wanted fugitives.
Israel already indicated it would temporarily halt its hunt for wanted men, although it reserved the right to target “ticking bombs.’’
