Author: Petr Lyukimson, Israel, exclusively to VK
According to sources in Israel, after the elections and the formation of a new Israeli government, new Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will start in Amman. They will be held under the patronage of several countries, such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar. The same sources report about the creation of a new "Sunni bloc" with the support of the USA. This bloc should be an important player on the international scene. Apparently, this is the question of these negotiations and of the recent secret visit of the Israeli prime minister to Jordan, where he met Abdullah II.
During the negotiations under the auspices of the "Sunni bloc", the United States hopes to achieve full normalization of relations between Israel and Turkey. Turkey is expected to relieve or mitigate most of its demands towards Israel, explaining it by a positive change in the official position of Jerusalem. Israel will pay decent compensation to the families killed in the "Mavi Marmara" incident.
Finally, according to the same sources, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a vow to U.S. President Barack Obama not to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities before the end of US-Iranian talks in Geneva in March 2013. Apparently, this explains the fact that Netanyahu didn’t put the Iranian problem on the agenda in the country's campaign.
Meanwhile, in a conversation with a VK correspondent, Sufian Abu Zaida, professor of the Palestinian university "Bir-Zait", former member of the negotiations between Palestine and Israel and former Minister for Palestinian Prisoners, says that the Palestinian Authority is close to catastrophe. According to Dr. Abu Zaida, visiting Gaza every month, the economic situation in the Palestinian Authority is close to collapse. "If Gaza is thriving because of humanitarian aid from the United Nations, Turkey and the Arab countries, the economy of the West Bank is continuously falling. This decline resulted in the sanctions, which Israel initiated as punishment for the recent appeal to the UN,” he says.
Palestinian police, designed to maintain order and prevent terror, received only a quarter of the salary. Why should they continue to perform their duties? The government of Mahmoud Abbas led to the collapse of the Palestinians. Who then will support the Palestinian people? It appears that Israel with its own hands promotes terrorists and blows up those who are willing to negotiate with them peacefully."
Abu Zaida fears that Hamas and other fundamentalist forces will come to power in the Palestinian Authority. This course is categorically denied by Palestinian intellectuals. According to Abu Zaida, Israel will be responsible for this.
However, sources close to the Prime Minister of Israel argue that Netanyahu will try to persuade the Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to sign an agreement on an interim settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Under the agreement, Israel will retain its control over all Jewish settlements, but retreat from all areas where Jewish settlements are absent. As a result, about 70% of the area considered by Palestinians as the future territory of the state would be under the full authority of the Autonomy. This is one of the most sensitive points of the conflict, including the issue of Jerusalem. Netanyahu proposed suspending negotiations for two or three decades, during which the parties should build an atmosphere of trust based on economic cooperation and peaceful co-existence of two peoples side by side. In essence, this is a long-standing initiative pushed by the former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The only question is whether the Palestinians would accept this plan.
