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Reason for Optimism in Mideast Talks

(McClatchy-Tribune) Michael B. Oren - Israeli and Palestinian leaders are in Washington trying to make peace - again. Is there any reason for optimism? Indeed, there is. For the first time in history, most Arab leaders view a Middle Eastern state other than Israel - Iran - as their major enemy. The West Bank - or, as the Bible calls it, Judea and Samaria - was twice used as a staging ground for wars of annihilation against Israel, which captured the area in 1967. Sacred to the Jewish people for 3,000 years and vital to the defense of Israel's borders (which were a mere eight miles wide prior to 1967), the West Bank became home to hundreds of thousands of Israelis. With the start of the peace process in 1993, successive Israeli governments recognized the need to make painful sacrifices in these territories while upholding the right of Israeli citizens to continue building there. Since assuming office, Netanyahu has made several gestures to the Palestinians to encourage them to return to the negotiating table. In addition to removing hundreds of checkpoints and facilitating the Palestinian economic boom, he has refrained from building any new settlements, from acquiring new territory for existing ones and from offering Israelis incentives to move to them. Finally, in a measure described as "unprecedented" by Secretary of State Clinton, Netanyahu froze all new construction within the settlements for a ten-month period. The Palestinians are now threatening to quit the negotiations unless Netanyahu extends the construction freeze. Israel, of course, is seeking specific goals in the talks, including demilitarization of the Palestinian state and its recognition of Israel as the nation of the Jewish people. Israel also wants the Palestinians to cease teaching their children that Israel has no right to exist, and naming public squares after terrorists. But we are not insisting that the Palestinians meet these objectives before the talks even begin. We appreciate, therefore, Secretary Clinton's call for "good faith" negotiations "without preconditions." Settlements have never been an obstacle to peace. Though Israelis account for 17% of the West Bank's population, they inhabit a mere 1.7% of the land. The existence of the settlements did not prevent Egypt and Jordan from making peace with Israel, or the Palestinians from negotiating with us for nearly two decades. All parties to negotiations understand that the large settlement clusters will, in any final-status treaty, remain part of Israel. The writer is Israeli ambassador to the United States.
2010-09-03 10:21:19
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