The Window For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Is Narrowing

Linda S. Heard writes: It's beyond time that the Israelis understood that their security goes hand-in-hand with Palestinian rights
This commentary was published in The Gulf News on 26/04/2011

Tel Aviv and its backer Washington are heading for embarrassment. Accused of double-standards over the Palestinian issue for decades, their wilful disregard of Palestinian rights can no longer be hidden from the spotlight. When Arabs have awakened from their long slumber to refuse dictatorship and oppression, Palestinians ask when their turn will come.

US President Barack Obama's enthusiastic support for the popular uprisings in North Africa, Yemen and Syria only serves to highlight his unwillingness to pay anything other than lip service to the two-state solution. He could hardly conceal his excitement when Egyptians won freedom and democracy for themselves yet his administration remains an unshakeable obstacle to Palestinians doing the same. This was evidenced in February when the US was the only member of the UN Security Council to veto a resolution condemning colony expansion in the West Bank as a barrier to peace in spite of the fact its wording was in conformity with official US statements.

Fed up with endless talks that have gone nowhere, in September, the Palestinian leadership plans to seek UN General Assembly recognition of a Palestinian state drawn on pre-1967 borders with a resolution titled ‘Unity for Peace'. This has been characterised as ‘a diplomatic tsunami' by the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak. The Palestinians will further ask the Security Council to approve Palestine's application for UN membership. They say they are prepared to wait until September to see if Obama's promise of a peace settlement manifests by then — although that pledge is destined to be broken like so many others he's made.

The White House is urging Palestinians not to proceed. This is clearly because the US risks being embarrassingly isolated if it votes ‘no' or in the very unlikely event of a ‘yes' vote, Obama, who is seeking re-election next year, would become a target for the powerful pro-Israel lobby.

The Israeli government has threatened that any such bid would end peace talks and result in Israel's annexation of the West Bank. Legally, the Palestinian case is rock solid; generations have been subsisting under foreign occupation despite a slew of UN Security Council resolutions in their favour. It's no surprise that the vast majority of the international community sees it their way.

Palestinian New York-based diplomat Riyad Mansour says "hopefully by September 2011 we will have 130, maybe, 140 countries recognising the state of Palestine". In other words, more than two-thirds of the 192 General Assembly member nations. The EU may also be warming to the plan, according to President Mahmoud Abbas who says he has the support of France's President Nicolas Sarkozy. In a blatant attempt to thwart the Palestinians taking their case to the UN, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has announced that her boss will soon disclose details of another US-led push for peace, which is why a meeting of the Quartet — the US, UN, EU and Russia — to debate the issue has twice been postponed.

The window for peace is narrowing which some Israelis are beginning to realise. Israeli President Shimon Peres is worried. "If we don't want foreign plans, the best way would be a plan of our own and if we do that, others won't go ahead with theirs," he recently said.

Complacency

On Thursday, 47 prominent Israeli intellectuals demonstrated in Tel Aviv for a Palestinian state behind 1967 borders. Heckled by right-wingers shouting ‘traitors' and ‘Nazis' it's doubtful their message will be heard. Israelis have become complacent. They need more than a gentle shove. It's probable that a giant shove is about to be administered by the new Egypt. Whoever is elected president of Egypt later this year will be influenced by the mood on the street. For the first time in decades, large crowds have been demonstrating outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo and there have been calls for Egyptians to march towards Rafah to tear down the border with Gaza. Several presidential candidates are delivering fiery anti-Israel rhetoric and hinting that they would be willing to either renegotiate the Israel-Egypt peace treaty or shred it. Front-runner and Arab League chief Amr Mousa has announced that the Camp David Accords have expired.

Former IAEA head Mohammad Al Baradei, also a candidate for the top job, warns "in case of any future Israeli attack on Gaza as the next president of Egypt I will open the Rafah border and will consider different ways to implement the joint Arab defence agreement." Egypt is also reaching out to Hamas as well as Israel's sworn enemy Iran. If Egypt turns, it's likely that Jordan will follow leaving Israel friendless in the region.

Israel's main existential threat is its own intransigence; it's beyond time that Israelis understood that their security goes hand-in-hand with Palestinian rights. As the people of Tunisia and Egypt have discovered, even if the wheels of justice sometimes turn slowly, sooner or later, it will prevail.

Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com. Some of the comments may be considered for publication.