44 Days to Go – Missing an Opportunity to Miss an Opportunity

By Sherwin Pomerantz

With 44 days to go to the opening of the UN General Assembly and the vote on Palestinian statehood it looks like Abba Eban’s statement that the Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity is in play once again.

Overnight the press reported that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has been in communication with President Obama and said that Israel would be willing to accept the 1967 armistice lines with mutually agreed upon land swaps as a baseline for peace talks as part of a package in which the Palestinian Arab leadership would (a) recognize Israel as the Jewish state and (b) desist from the pursuit of September’s vote on statehood at the UN. The Palestinians would then agree that the final goal of negotiations would be two states side by side, a Palestinian one and a Jewish one.

Jerusalem, while not endorsing the 1967 lines, would agree to language that would say that Israel recognizes that this is the position of the international community. The Israeli official quoted in the press said that the willingness to show this degree of flexibility would be contingent on the Palestinians demonstrating flexibility of their own and endorsing language nodding at recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.

Well it did not take very long for the Palestinian Arab leadership to dismiss this potential concession on future borders calling it a ploy. According to a report in London’s Telegraph, senior officials responded with considerable suspicion to claims that Prime Minister Netanyahu was prepared to compromise on his long-standing objections to Palestinian sovereignty over Judea and Samaria within its current boundaries.

Saeb Erekat, a leading Palestinian negotiator, said “When I hear this from Netanyahu’s lips, that he will accept an Israeli state along 1967 borders, I will believe it. But what I have read so far is a masterpiece of PR and linguistics. [The Israelis] do this very well.” He then added “Such an important thing deserves that Netanyahu speak to his people in Hebrew,
Arabic, English or Chinese, so we can hear him saying that he accepts a two state solution along the 1967 borders.”

In response Israeli official say they are prepared to accept a package proposed by the US and its negotiating partners as outlined above. Israel insists, of course, that adjustments would have to be made to allow us to annex some of our larger settlements in Judea and Samaria in exchange for land in Israel.

So, once again, an opening appears and the door is immediately shut. But this has happened before. And what is really amusing is that ever since Oslo when Arafat himself used to say one thing to the press in English (usually through an interpreter) and something entirely different to his people in Arabic, we have been demanding that the Palestinian leadership say in Arabic what they say to the world press, yet that normally does not happen. For the tables to be turned on us in a society with a free press is really ludicrous.

So the stalemate continues and another opportunity seems lost. For the moment, we will all go back to demonstrating for social equality while the politicians watch the days move ever closer to September. The frustration is palpable.