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Gaza: Moving Forward by Pulling Back

(Foreign Affairs) David Makovsky - It is wrong to assume that the Israelis and Palestinians can simply return to the summer of 2000, when Washington thought that an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was within sight. Trust between the parties has been shattered by violence, and rebuilding it will not be quick or easy. Reaching for too much too soon will turn the current opening into one more lost opportunity. Rushing to an endgame approach will energize hard-liners in both camps and undermine the leadership of Abbas and Sharon. Abbas does not yet have the authority to veer from Arafat's legacy on the conflict's most sensitive issues. The experience of 2000 demonstrates that for any agreement to succeed, Arab states must give vocal support to it so that the Palestinian leader will have the political cover he needs to compromise on questions central to Palestinian identity. Since Arab governments have been unwilling to do this, it is preferable to focus on practical steps. Washington should work with Egypt to reconfigure the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) currently stationed in Sinai to patrol the border between Gaza and Egypt. The MFO would be useful because the framework for it already exists. Although simply diverting personnel from the MFO's current mission may not suit the needs of the new task, its configuration could be quickly enhanced. The writer is Senior Fellow and Director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
2005-04-14 00:00:00
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