by Ghassan Khatib - bitterlemons - Feb. 20, 2007
America and Israel are starting to show a renewed willingness to return to a bilateral political negotiating process. The international, and especially US, abandonment in recent years of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has led to disaster, and Israel`s unilateral strategy has collapsed.
It is therefore no surprise that politicians and analysts are looking to the 2002 Arab peace initiative as a promising basis for such a process. Certainly the Saudis, who drafted the initiative, as well as the Jordanians and Egyptians are strongly promoting this approach, and in this they are fully supported by the Palestinians.
The initiative provides a promising basis, because it proposes a known outcome toward which negotiations would then ensure implementation. That outcome, from an Arab and Palestinian perspective, would of course entail a complete end to the occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
But the initiative also includes an unprecedented incentive to Israel. Previous agreements and initiatives were bilateral in nature. This initiative offers Israel a comprehensive peace, including normalized relations, with all Arab countries, no exceptions.
Secondly, the initiative contains the advantage of simultaneous implementation. In other words, the Israeli withdrawal is conditioned on Arab recognition.
Finally, and perhaps most important, fixing at least borders before implementation removes any chance of either side taking unilateral steps to subvert the final outcome. Such steps, specifically Israel`s settlement program, were the primary factor in the failure of the peace process.
In the years of that process, Israel doubled the number of settlers in occupied territory and vastly expanded not only the number of settlements but also the areas of already existing settlements. At Camp David, such was the success of this Israeli program of creating facts on the ground that attempting to fix future borders was vastly influenced by these illegal settlements.
It is impossible to overestimate the importance of the Arab peace initiative. And as international and American Middle East diplomacy cranks up in gear again, the initiative will prove useful as brokers attempt to learn from the mistakes of the past.
Nevertheless, there are reservations in Washington because the Arab initiative requires comprehensive withdrawal in return for comprehensive peace. This includes withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights. The US does not want to include Syria in its diplomatic efforts for reasons related to the Syrian role in Iraq and Lebanon.
But it would make sense to reverse the logic that led to this position. Inviting Syria to take part in the political process, thereby opening a dialogue between Syria on the one hand and Israel and the US on the other, would almost inevitably lead to a change in Syria`s role in Iraq and Lebanon. This would especially pertain if the recent and very active Saudi regional diplomacy is taken advantage of.
A new Middle East peace process, led by the Quartet with active American, Saudi and Egyptian roles can build on the Saudi achievement of making Palestinian factions reach agreement in Mecca and will have a positive impact on both internal Palestinian politics and the regional picture. One of the main causes of Palestinian and regional radicalization is the continued suffering of the Palestinian people as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation.- Published 19/2/2007 © bitterlemons.org
Ghassan Khatib is the coeditor of the bitterlemons family of internet publications. He is vice-president of Birzeit University and a former Palestinian Authority minister of planning.
