Inside Israeli and Palestinian Heads

At the World Economic Forum conference in the Dead Sea, we caught some inside glimpses into Palestinian-Israeli relations and Palestinian-Palestinian tensions.

Bottom line: Israelis are shortsightedly citing Palestinian violence as a reason for hesitating on a final settlement with the Palestinians. But for all of the heartfelt appeals from Palestinian moderates, the Palestinian attacks and internal troubles tragically feed the Israeli logic. The words and body language didn't bode very well for the efforts of Condi Rice to restart serious peace negotiations with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah party led negotiations leading to the Israel-PLO Oslo accord in 1993.

Palestinians and Israelis hadn't been talking officially since Ariel Sharon's election in 2001, until some recent, apparently unproductive meetings between Abbas and Olmert. So the comments of Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat, though made in front of hundreds of WEF delegates, showed the type of blunt, intimate exchanges that leaders on both sides might be having behind the scenes now.

In a session called "Peace in Pieces: Dealing with Violence," Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa kicked off by touting the 2002 Arab peace initiative and complaining that Israeli leaders had ignored it while they continued to construct settlements and the separation wall in the West Bank. Moussa complained that Israel and the U.S. responded to the Palestinian national unity government formed in the recent Mecca Agreement by continuing an economic embargo that helped spark the Palestinian-on-Palestinian fighting.

Peres responded by saying that Israelis had withdrawn from Gaza at great political and financial cost only to see the territory fortified as a base of military operations against Israel and experience a "free fall" in violence. Hamas policies and actions, Peres explained, forced Israel to react militarily in a way "that we don't want to do." Peres praised the Arab peace plan as "music we have not heard for 100 years" (though he complained there was still no Arab "orchestra") but that the problem now is not just negotiating a peace deal with Abbas or the Arab League, but countering the threat from Iran, and its allies like Hamas and Hizballah. "Hamas is not looking for a solution," he said. "They are looking for a change in the Middle East. Hizballah, Hamas and Iran have the same line."

Peres's solution is a three-track effort to improve Palestinian daily life while ensuring Israeli security; offering Palestinians a "political horizon" for a final settlement of the dispute; and working to rebuild the Palestinian economy. In the big news of the day, Peres announced that Israel would formally offer a counter-proposal to the Arab peace initiative. Moussa said that a reasonable counter offer would mean "we are all in business." But when Peres was pressed by Moussa on when the Israeli counter proposal would be forthcoming, he drew laughs when he equivocated, "As soon as possible."

Erakat volunteered an admission that Palestinians had embarrassed themselves by the infighting between Abbas's Fatah party and Hamas, and there was an absolute need to reestablish order under one government authority to prevent what he called the "growth of the Mogadishu Syndrome." But he partially blamed the embargo for the infighting, rattling off a list of horrible stats on the abysmal quality of Palestinian life especially in Gaza. "What do you expect?" he asked Peres. "We don't have the resources to restore security." He said the Israelis had effectively tied the hands and feet of Abbas, threw him into the sea, and then complained they didn't have a negotiating partner.

Then Erakat came with what may have been the most useful observation of the day, that "the time for negotiations has finished, now it is the time for decisions." What he means is that after years of negotiations, both sides know what they want and what is realistic to achieve, and now they have to summon the political will to make the difficult compromises. He argued that peace talks would tremendously strengthen both Olmert and Abbas. His prescription was that 1) Palestinians need to re-establish one authority in Palestine; 2) Israelis and the West have to lift the embargo and 3) Israel has to accept the Arab peace plan and start negotiations on that basis.

Peres talked about how far Israel's right wing had come in accepting a 2-state solution, but repeated that the problem was now not negotiating with Abbas but dealing with Hamas and Hizballah. "The problem isn't to reach an agreement but to implement it."

Erakat, replied, "What's holding us back?" To which Peres said that Israel would do little as long as Hamas is firing rockets at Israeli citizens. "To us, security is the first priority."

Erakat: "We are ready, the time is for decisions."

Peres: "The first decision is to introduce security."

Erakat: "This (negotiations) is where the security comes. 'Security' is not 'defense'"

Peres replied that Israel supports the right of Palestinians to independence, security and economic development, but first Israel had to protect the lives of its people.

Erakat: "Let's do it."

At that point, Peres had to excuse himself to keep a scheduled appointment with Jordan's King Abdullah II and get back to an Israeli cabinet meeting in just two hours.

After Peres left the platform, Erakat hammered the same point in response to concerns from two American congressmen about Hamas. When Arafat was alive, the Israelis said he was "not a partner." When Abbas became leader with Arafat's death, he was considered "irrelevant." "Now the Israelis can't negotiate because Hamas is there. They are seeking a pretext to blame it on us. Address the real issue, which is the occupation which has lasted 40 years." Erakat stressed that the Mecca Agreement left negotiations with Israel in the hands of Abbas and not Hamas leaders, so Israel should take up the opportunity to deal with Abbas.

Not helping matters, however, are the mixed signals about Hamas coming out of the Arab states. In an earlier session, speaking in support of the Saudi-sponsored Arab peace initiative, Prince Turki al Faisal called on Palestinians to replace the armed struggle with the Gandhi method of civil resistance. But Moussa told the panel that included Peres that you "can't call on Palestinians to be pacified until Israelis decide to withdraw." As regards the occupation, he added, "people ought to reject it, people have to reject it."

It was interesting to see Erakat take on Hamas at a lunch hosted by Palestinians afterwards. And it was interesting to see Palestinian businessmen and NGO leaders taking on the whole Palestinian political spectrum. Erakat spent alot of time talking about the need for Palestinian reform and democracy.

Erakat mocked Hamas for trying to lead the Palestinian people while rejecting U.N. resolutions and the Arab League peace initiative which support Palestinian aspirations for statehood. Despite the current gloom, he remained insistent that Palestinians were evolving and would eventually attain their goals.

He said this would not come solely by pressure from Palestinians, which he described half-jokingly as the weakest negotiating partner in history, having "no army, no air force, no economy and fighting each other."

No, he said, the Israelis are experiencing "growing pains" and would reach the conclusion that a Palestinian state best served their interests. Erakat joked that "after extensive research" it was determined that Muslims and Christians living in Israel or Israeli-controlled territories were not expected to convert to Judaism. Given the more rapid population growth rate for Arabs, eventually Israel would have to accept a separate Palestinian state to avoid being taken over itself by Palestinians.

Erakat said if the Israelis wanted to have one state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, that was fine with him, even if they called it Israel and not Palestine, so long as Arabs received equal rights. "If there is one state, we'll accept it, and then fight for an equal voice," he said. "We'll change the name [of the state] by votes in the Knesset some day."

Erakat ended the lunch with a popular joke in the Middle East.

An Israeli and a Palestinian go to a Western film. As a cowboy races off on a horse, the Israeli bets the Palestinian $20 that the rider will fall off. When the rider proceeds to do just that, the Israeli says, I can't take your money. I saw the film before. The Palestinian says, So did I. But I thought the cowboy would learn from his mistake.

--By Scott MacLeod/Suwaymah