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Wishful Thinking in the Middle East Is Not Enough

(Miami Herald) Daniel S. Mariaschin - The Palestinian leadership seems to be working on the premise of wishing a state into being, at the expense of meaningful negotiations and an agreed upon security framework. Speaking of the campaign to win recognition of a Palestinian state by Latin American nations, PA President Mahmoud Abbas told AP: "These recognitions of a Palestinian state will help us to convince the Israelis on the necessity to reach a two-state solution." That's disingenuous. It is not the Israelis who need convincing. At every turn Israel has demonstrated a willingness to sit down to negotiate, while the Palestinians have followed the path of delays and deferrals. A Palestinian state can only be created through direct talks between Israel and Palestinian representatives. In collecting endorsements, Abbas circumvents that step and gives the Palestinian side license to evade meaningful negotiations. In declaring a state absent negotiations, the international community is sending the clear message to the Palestinians that there is no need for them to make any compromise: outsiders will do all the heavy lifting, and Israel will be left with a fait accompli. Such false hope - that the Palestinian side does not have to make any compromises - can only doom the process. Nearly 20 years ago, the Oslo Accords established a framework for all future negotiations. A key component - which the Palestinians agreed to - is that a Palestinian state would be created through talks between the parties. Pushing Israel out of the mix is a blatant violation of this agreement, which has been the guiding force in a side-by-side solution for nearly two decades. The writer is executive vice president of B'nai B'rith International.
2011-01-18 10:39:55
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