This comment was published in The Jordan Times on 21/11/2010
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has recently said that had the Palestinian conflict been resolved some 20 years ago, as it should have, there would have been no Hizbollah, no Iran and no Al Qaeda.
What the Lebanese premier is therefore saying is that the longer we wait for the resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict the bigger the chance for new threats to regional and international peace to pop up.
Israel should have been capable of recognising that the longer the antagonists in the area wait to conclude a peace treaty the harder it is going to be.
King Hussein tried to negotiate an honourable peace deal with Israel that could have given Israel security, stability and safety for well over 20 years. The book "The Lion of Jordan" attests to this fact and describes in detail the agonising and frustrating negotiations conducted between Israel and Jordan that ended in a bitter deadlock and the withdrawal of Jordan from the negotiating process over the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which were part of the Jordanian territory and subject to UN Resolution 242?
Now it is being said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is so frustrated with the protracted negotiations with Israel that he is ready to throw in the towel and even resign from his post. Obviously no future Palestinian leader would be as forthcoming in peace talks with Israel as Abbas.
Therefore once again, and without having learnt a thing from the past five decades of fruitless talks, the reins might be handed over to individuals who could be much harder to deal with.
Needless to add that Hamas would have not been seen had there been progress during the initial peace talks with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Time is not on the side of peace. Israel is gambling with its own security and survival by pretending that the future will bring better tidings.
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