By Peter Lukimson, exclusively to VK
Last week the official visit of Palestinian autonomy PM Salam Fayyad was announced. He was to come to Jerusalem to pass over the personal letter of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to Israeli Pm Netanyahu. However, only the chief negotiator, Saib Arikat, and the head of Palestinian security service Amdjad Faraj came to the meting on April, 17.
Israeli media discussed a number of explanations of Fayyad’s absence. Some say Palestinian PM didn’t want to ‘be in one picture’ with Benjamin Netanyahu who is blamed for the failure of the peace negotiations by the Palestinian side. Other version suggests that the PM couldn’t go to Israel on April, 17 as this day is marked as ‘Prisoner’s day’ in the autonomy, and it was the day when Palestinian convicts of Israeli prisons went on a hunger strike due to the deterioration of the keeping.
In the meantime, it was the Palestinian side that insisted on the meeting in Jerusalem, as it wanted to pass over the letter of Abbas which holds a number of Palestinian demands as well as blames Israel for sabotaging the peace process. According to this message, if the Israeli side doesn’t comply with Palestinian demands, Abbas will try to achieve the international recognition unilaterally. As a precondition to the reopening of the negotiations the Palestinian autonomy demands Israel to recognize the future Palestinian state in the borders of “June, 4, 1967”. Another ultimatum imposed by the letter is the cessation of construction activity in Judea, Samaria and Eastern Jerusalem, as well as liberation of all Palestinian convicts.
As for the ‘unilateral actions’, Palestinians are planning to act through the UN General Assembly this time (last autumn they tried to do it through the Security Council). The Palestinian authorities want to become permanent members of the assembly instead of being observers, which would open them way to many other international organizations. According to a number of sources in Palestine, this ultimatum is merely a tactical step – no one expects Israel to comply with the demands, but the refusal of Netanyahu to meet these demands would serve as a good international alibi for the PA.
Before the Palestinian-Israeli meeting Abbas subjected Israeli politics to severe criticism in his interview to the local media. According to him Israel is interested in preserving the status quo instead of resolving the situation. He also said that Israeli politics is aimed at creating a single state for two peoples – the Jews and the Arabs – instead of two different states. He also stressed that Palestine would never agree to Israel’s military control over Jordan valley and will insist on evacuation of all Jew settlements from this area.
As Mr Arikat declared during his recent meeting with Netanyahu, personal meeting with Abbas is possible only if Israel freezes al the construction sites in these settlements. After this meeting both sides published joint communiqués declaring their allegiance to peace. Netanyahu said that Israeli reply message would be delivered in two weeks. However, a week ago the Israeli side has already passed a document to the Palestinians. This document explains Israeli point of view on the situation and on different aspects of the conflict’s final resolution.
Right before the meeting of Netanyahu and Arikat the members of the ‘quartet’ expressed their deep concern about the general state of the negotiation process and the above mentioned construction sites. They also condemned the recent bombing of Israeli territory from Gaza. The ‘quartet’ also called on the international sponsors to increase their allocations to the PA.
Israeli FM Avigdor Liebermann also commented on this development. According to him the Palestinian administration prefers to blame Israel for its interior problems instead of trying to resolve them. He also said that any kind of threats is inacceptable and all problems should be resolved by direct negotiations without any preconditions.
After receiving the message Netanyahu gathered a group of his advisers to discuss its contents, even though there’s nothing new about them. The document was cited by the media a week before it was passed on to the Israeli government. Only the liberation of convicts and restoration 2000 status quo situation in ‘zone A’ could be regarded as principally new demands.
According to high-ranking Israeli officials the revitalization of Palestinian-Israeli peace process is called to stabilize the situation in the region to ensure the prospects of the anti-Iranian coalition. So Israel has to show that it is ready to make sacrifices in the name of peace in order to ensure the support of the US in its anti-Iranian actions. The Palestinians understand the situation and that is why they put forward excessive demands.
The very fact that Palestinian chief of security met with Netanyahu is not an accident: it shows that the main problem of the current Palestinian administration isn’t Israel, it is the terrorist group Hamas which tries to seize the power. And Palestinian law enforcement agencies hope for Israel’s help in this regard. Israeli police has already conducted a number of successful anti-terrorist operations on Palestinian territory.
All this makes on wonder: are the difficulties between Israel and Palestine superficial? In reality both parties are content with the existing situation: the Palestinian economy (and life conditions with it) is growing due to the lift of some bans by Netanyahu. At the same time the continued struggle for an independent state grants the Palestinians international support are humanitarian help – and they are unlikely to decline it.
So the ‘peace process game’ goes on, and it will go on for a long while – because it is the process, and not its result, that is in the best interest of both sides.
