One More Chance? Is it Worth the Risk?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

Reading the papers here over the last few days does not help at all to clarify the next steps that Israel should or should not take regarding possible forward movement towards negotiations with the Palestinian Arab leadership.

Earlier this week Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman let loose a barrage of negative comments about Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas saying that he should resign, that Abbas is the obstacle to peace and that the peace process itself would be well-served by his departing the scene.

In re sponse, Israel’s President, Shimon Peres, stated publicly the next day that Chairman Abbas and his Prime Minister, Salam Fayyad, are both serious leaders of the Palestinian Arab population, that they are, indeed, reliable peace partners and that we should negotiate with them.

Yuval Diskin, former director of the Shin Bet, Israel’s equivalent of the CIA, in a speech at Ashalim College in the Negev on Wednesday opined that while Abbas and the rest of the Palestinian Arab leadership does not love us, Abbas is squarely against terrorism, and has done more than any other Palestinian Arab leader to quell terrorism. He went on to say that Israel will make a mistake if it does not find a way to negotiate with Abbas as when he steps down (he is now 76 years old) there is no apparent heir and there will, no doubt, be an internal battle for the leadership of Fatah.

This morning, in response to new overtures by the Quartet dealing with re-energizing the peace process here (i.e. the US, Russia, the EU and the UN) Israel’s Prime Minister stated the country’s willingness to immediately sit down with the Palestinian Arab leadership to negotiate peace without preconditions while the representatives on the other side said they are prepared to come to the negotiating table only if Israel ceases all construction in the areas captures in 1967. (Recall that Israel did enforce such a 10-month suspension in 2010 and the Palestinian Arab leadership still did not agree to come to the table. They waited until the 10th month and then said they would sit down and talk if the freeze was extended.)

So what to make of all of this? Down deep the overwhelming majority of Israelis agree that the present situation is not sustainable over the long run. But that understanding starts to fracture when one digs deeper as to what to do next. Options range from acceding to all of the demands of the Palestinian Arab leadership before sitting down to negotiate, to declaring sovereignty over all of Judea and Samaria (i.e. the West Bank) and letting the chips fall where they may.

The question then would seem to be is it worth making one more concession to Palestinian Arab demands in order to see, once and for all, if we do actually have a partner on the other side? In spite of my earlier blog which I clearly titled “no more concessions” I would have to say that I think the process is worth one more shot. If I were making the decisions for the Government of Israel I would say to the Palestinian Arab leadership, ok, we will suspend all construction in the territories captured in 1967 for 90 days but no other pre-conditions to the talks. If the other side is prepared to then sit down and discuss the parameters of an end to the conflict, fine. If not, Israel will have to decide what is in its best interests and proceed on that path.

I am suggesting this for the same reason that I was in favor of the incredibly lopsided prisoner swap that took place last week where we exchanged 1,027 convicts for Gilad Schalit. I agreed with the assessment of the government here that no one can tell what will happen in Egypt over the course of the next 12-18 months. Therefore, as long as we had someone to speak with who was willing to act as an intermediary, we needed to take advantage of that situation.

I believe the same is true now with the Palestinian Arab leadership in Judea and Samaria. While all of us can point to plenty of negatives about their history, and certainly Yuval Diskin is correct when he says they will never love us, the fact is that there is significant security and economic progress being made in the areas under their control and we need to recognize that. Security cooperation between us is the best it has been in years but no one can tell what will be in the future.

So, recognizing all of the pitfalls in going this route, and understanding that we will cross yet another red line, we have taken so many chances for peace in the past that one more now will probably not make much of a difference. We may not succeed in this effort but we probably owe it to future generations to take one more stab at it. Maybe, just maybe, the other side also finally understands this as well.