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When I interviewed Late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1997 it was at a very odd time : 1:30 am, at Rashtrapati Bhawan, during his visit to India.
I asked him a question: Mr. Arafat What do you expect from Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu? Arafat Kept silent and looked at me for a while and I could see the anger in his eyes. I repeated the question two times till he answered with one word: NOTHING and opened widely his palms.
Two years ago, I raised the same question to President Mahmoud Abbas when I interviewed him in Delhi, while Netanyahu was serving his second term as the Prime Minister of Israel and asked him: What do you expect from Mr. Netanyahu on the peace process?
He said: We “talk for the sake of talk”. I argued with him and told him about me asking late Arafat the same question and his answer. I told him Mr. Arafat was a leader to reckon with and had good support among Palestinians, and that he could cause another uprising if he was hurt and there was no progress on the peace process, and yet he was worried about the fate that would befall his people at the hands of Netanyahu. I told Mr. Mahmoud, in your current situation, with a divided Palestinian house and inability to mobilize people on the street, you are going for negotiation? His response was that we have no other option but to talk.
What I did not tell Abu Mazen was that if you declared your resignation in a public speech protesting about the deadlock and lack of progress on the peace process because of the unwillingness of the frequent Israeli governments to find a just solution to the Palestinian plight, then I am sure Mr. Mahmoud Abbas would have been remembered as a hero and a patriotic leader to the Palestinian cause.
The sudden announcement of resuming peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians comes at a time when the Palestine issue was gaining international recognition and the international community was realizing the injustice done to them, and that without just and a comprehensive peace, which will guarantee an independent sovereign Palestinian state, there will be no peace in the Middle East between the Arabs and Israel.
Mr. Mahmoud Abbas found hopes of moving the peace process forward and even Mr. Netanyahu claimed that it is in Israel’s strategic interest to strike the deal within nine months; for a century – old conflict!
It was the European Union’s pressure on Israel because of its policy of building settlements in occupied Palestinian territories, and the intention of the EU to extend aid to the Gaza strip that prompted the Israeli government to push for dialogue. The worries of confrontation in the UN General Assembly in September also got Tel Aviv to activate its Jewish Lobby in the United States to pressurize President Barack Obama to bring both sides for the negotiations without any pre condition.
It was Israeli lobbyist, Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel and special envoy of US for the Israeli and Palestinian negotiations, who put pressure on the White House along with Samantha Power, Susan Rice and John Kerry himself that made Obama succumb to the pressure and yield to Israel’s demand, to show his backing to the demand of the 4th strongest power in the world and the only nuclear power in the Middle East, by bringing the weakest of all the Palestinian authority to the negotiation table. This so that they can block EU projects in Gaza Strip and preempt any move by the international community to internationalize the Israel-Palestine conflict once again, at a time when Israel has succeeded in making it a bilateral issue.
In fact, on the eve of her appointment as the US’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Samantha Power proved once again her loyalty to Israel and vowed in the US Congress to support Israel in the UN and boost its agenda by sabotaging any attempts by the Palestinians on human rights and self determination.
The Israel - Arab conflict is a century old and Israel continues to occupy territories from all neighboring countries, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt and annihilate Palestine by confiscating lands, destroying Palestinians houses, withdrawing Identity cards from Jerusalem Arab residents to continue its policy of converting the city into a Jewish one by building more settlements, an apartheid wall and forcing a status quoist situation. This daily harassment, detention and denying the Palestinians` their basic human rights is meant to add more misery and force them to leave.
So then the question really is, for what are you negotiating? What is it you want to achieve from the peace talks?
The Palestinians, despite being in disarray, depressed and oppressed, are resisting and still surviving under occupation but yet they will never give up their rights and no one can claim that he is negotiating for a lasting peace on their behalf when the other side is not offering them permission to even build up a bathroom in their houses in Jerusalem.
On second of August was Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day which united many countries on a single cause. Many capitals witnessed demonstrations, rallies and pro Palestinian speeches where sympathizing leaders echoed the general global sympathy with the Palestinian cause and vowed to support them, protect Jerusalem in particular and Palestine in general.
Some leaders went on to say that no one has the right to surrender a bit of Palestinian territory to anyone and insisted that the main cause of turbulence in the Arab world is Israel and its policy of destabilizing the region to ensure its hegemony and further expansion by occupying more territories at the cost of anarchy and instability on the pretext of protecting itself.
The US has achieved a diplomatic breakthrough by bringing both unequal parties to the negotiating table and then Israel will ensure that US will not be part to the bilateral negotiations with the PLA team.
According to sources, Netanyahu brokered a secret deal with his right wing coalition partners by allowing building of 3500-4500 settlements in the occupied territories in exchange for allowing Netanyahu to release Palestinians from jail; mostly those who have completed their terms.
When the US led the world to liberate Kuwait, the Madrid peace conference was announced and the Arab countries went to negotiate with Israel hoping to reach to a peaceful solution with the Americans as an a honest broker. Former prime minister of Israel Yitzhak Shamir stated that they are going for the sake of negotiation and let it last for 20 or 30 years more. Talk for the sake of talk because Israel will never evacuate “occupied Arab lands” since Israel does not consider it as occupied territories but its” divine legitimate land “.
The United States had a written confirmation ( Israel`s Assent) from the assassinated late president of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin`s willingness to withdraw from the occupied Syrian Golan prior to the 4th of June 1967. Hence Damascus went to Madrid Conference.
The Oslo accord was signed after secret negotiations with the Palestinian leaders, many of whom resigned in protest or pulled out because it was not the accord they thought they were fighting for.
The ailing late King of Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel to ensure recognition by Israel to his kingdom and not as an alternative to Palestine for the Palestinians. The US administration ignored the Israeli assent and claimed that president of US changed and so the commitment is dead.
Israel ended occupation of South Lebanon and withdrew partially from there.
Palestinians continued to struggle for their independent state and achieved nothing.
Israel continued its policy in the region, forcing recognition of its claim of a “Jewish State”.
What next?
The imbalance in negotiation is just for the sake of negotiating and fooling the international community, while Israel will continue to pursue its objectives.
According to Oded Yinon`s Strategy for Israel in the Nineteenth century http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/articles/article0005345.html ,the plan till date is working as per Israel objectives of dominance in the region and further dividing the Arab world along ethnic and religious lines.
On the Palestine front, if you watch this painful video you will know the actual plan of Israel, by annexation of lands, denying Palestinians their basic rights, where a woman was denied to enter her home in the pretext she does not have a valid document of ownership and then the Israeli soldiers took the mother to custody and the children crying and confronted the Israeli soldiers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zftnqQ4sL3A).
In due course, Israel will blame the Palestinians for the failure of peace talks and then work on dissolving the PLA.
Hamas on the other hand is facing isolation after interfering in Syria and Egypt situations and it is threatening its own authority in Gaza with the inhabitants planning a rebellious movement (Tammarud) against its misrule in the strip which will divide the Palestinians more and ensure no reconciliation between different groups and even Israel, which is thinking of re- occupying Gaza again.
Some military leaders have even said Israel should think of occupying the Sinai Peninsula if the situation in Egypt further deteriorates, while many American think tanks are trying to promote the idea of Jordan as the alternative home for Palestinians.
The recent EU decision to declare the military wing of the Hezbollah Lebanese political party as a terrorist outfit happened while they are seeking the party’s protection in South Lebanon to its UNIFIL troops stationed there. The only achievement from this political decision by the EU is a pretext to Israel to launch another adventure against Lebanon.
On Iran, according to a senior analyst, Israel is cautiously trying to buy time and thinking of a post - Obama period in the White House, where the Republicans will take over, in turn favoring an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear installations. In the meantime, they will check the military option against Iran while finishing small players surrounding her and supporters of Iran including Syria of course.
Peace is elusive in the Middle East and can prevail only when Israel ends occupation and accepts living in harmony with neighbors, if peace is its strategic option and two states is the solution.
For Palestinians, it is in their interest to keep the world on their side, expose the true intention behind the talks and seek the support of the international community to achieve their aspiration to live in peace in their legitimate land.
Israel must understand that peace cannot be bought but must be achieved and the road to that is well known. Palestine is not for Sale.
Dr. Waiel Awwad is a Senior Syrian Journalist and commentator on West Asian issues. (His work can be viewed on www.waielawwad.com. The views expressed in the article are personal)