6 - 12 August 1998
Issue No.389
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 6 - 12 August 1998 Issue No.389 |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Current issue | Previous issue | Site map | ||
Talk and double-talkThe so-called Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations are now verging on the absurd. The United States, the omnipotent superpower and supposedly the main broker in the peace process, throws in the towel in disgust with Israeli intransigence and withdraws to the sidelines. Washington then tells the Israelis and Palestinians to sit together and work on a do-it-yourself basis. The two sides go along with the advice, but for different reasons -- the Palestinians in the hope of an ever-elusive breakthrough, the Israelis just to win a respite from international criticism and gain time for more settlement-building, more demolition of Palestinian homes and confiscation of land in the Occupied Territories.The Palestinians and Israelis meet at different levels and with different representatives participating. After every meeting, conflicting messages emerge, with the Palestinians reporting no movement whatsoever and the Israelis claiming some progress. Again, after every meeting, the Palestinians say in a huff that they are giving up and shunning further talks -- only to plunge into another round of meetings, with similar results. One can only wonder when this farce will end. Hopes for relief from the direction of Washington have dimmed to the point of extinction. The United States is not placing, nor is it about to place, any pressure on Israel to relent and accept an American compromise plan for a 13 per cent withdrawal from the West Bank to get the peace process rolling. Washington is not willing even to make public its compromise plan and put the blame on Israel for its failure. Foreign Minister Amr Moussa this week said the result of Palestinian-Israeli meetings is "zero" and that the Israelis "are just wasting time." So where do we go from here? Top Egyptian officials speak of two possible avenues, which are not mutually exclusive. One is the convening of an Arab summit to draw up a plan of action to pressure Israel. The other is to organise the international conference proposed by Egypt and France. Until action materialises on either of these fronts, can we hope for a miraculous breakthrough somehow, somewhere in this logjam? Maybe the fall of Netanyahu's government?
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