Peter Lyukimson, Israel. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza
The Foreign Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman stated that in the near future an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians would be impossible. Lieberman stresses that the problem is not in Jewish villages or security, but in a zero level of trust between the sides, while talks are impossible without trust.
“Of course I am a bad guy,” Lieverman said. “But the good Israeli guys who tried to achieve peace with the Palestinians didn’t succeed in this either.” Lieberman rejected the term of “territories occupied by Israel” in his speech and later during a meeting with journalists, stating that it didn’t correlate either with history or international law.
Lieberman also admits that in relations between Israel and the U.S.A. a cooling down has been felt. Recently Secretary of State John Kerry has visited the Middle East and presented an American plan of providing Israeli security after establishing of the Palestinian state. Details of the plan are secret, but different sources describe it in different ways.
According to one version, the Americans agreed with the Israeli demand (which is supported by Jordan) that a control over the Jordan Valley and frontier posts between Jordan and Palestine will be provided by the Israeli army and international peacemakers. They said that the option was rejected by the chairman of the Palestinian Autonomy, Mahmud Abbas, at the four-hour meeting with Kerry, as the Palestinian leader stated that the plan meant “actual continuation of occupation.”
According to the other version, Kerry suggested giving a control over the Jordan Valley to international peacemakers and establish early warning systems there, so that Israel could observe ongoing events, at the meeting with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, the Defense Minister Moshe Jaalon, and the Minister of Justice, Zipi Livni. The Palestinians also rejected the variant, but representatives of Israel also made it clear that they had no plans to trust security of their country to anyone, but the Defense Army of Israel.
Kerry stated that a gap between the sides was caused by suspiciousness toward each other and absence of an intention from both sides to sacrifice their concepts of “national honor.” In fact Kerry simply confirmed Lieberman’s words.
At the same time, Kerry said that Israel and the Palestinians had never before been so close to the signing of an agreement. According to diplomatic sources, many questions have been settled. A crucial agreement on borders of 1967 and proportional exchange with territories (Israel gets all major blocks of Jewish residential areas in Judaea and Samaria and gives to Palestine the same-size territories in Negev) was achieved. The Palestinians agreed that settlement of the problem of refugees will be provided in borders of the Palestinian state, but mentioned that the moment shouldn’t be written in the final settlement agreement, as it could improve positions of radical forces in the Palestinian Autonomy. There is certain progress in positions of the sides on Jerusalem.
However, if both sides don’t believe that their negotiating partners will follow any achieved accords, the talks are senseless. A dead end is unavoidable without mutual trust.
