Re-entering the peace talks with a collective Arab voice

East Meredith , NY

As Arabs see it, the expanding settlements are the worst aspect of the Israeli occupation. Planners of the peace talks have failed to factor-in the impact of perpetual loss of land and security on the Palestinian psyche. Peace planning without regional insight is doomed to fail.


After authorizing the continuation of settlement building, Netanyahu passionately promised to achieve peace within a year. But now we hear of a second Israeli peace proposal requiring, not a year, not a decade, but several decades. In a UN speech Tuesday September 28, Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman offered a totally new idea for Arab-Israeli coexistence: removal of Israeli Arab populations from Israel to a future Palestinian state, and in return, Israel would retain the West Bank settlements.

While Netanyahu tries to justify expanding settlements as a provision for Israeli “natural population growth”, Lieberman recommends expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens.

The peace process may be starting to crumble. Last week, by lifting the construction ban, Netanyahu dismayed Arabs; this week, by touting the pragmatism of legalized ethnic cleansing, Lieberman shocked the Arabs and the world.

The Israeli Prime Minister is aware that he may have over-taxed Arab patience. He has appealed to President Abbas to stay the course as a “partner in peace.” The Prime Minister does not seem to understand how Palestinians emotionally process the settlements. Inserting, by force and by isolation, half a million Jewish settlers among Palestinian communities, in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, is tantamount to stretching the conflict of the 1967 war over 43 years.

Abbas remains un swayed by Bibi’s peace rhetoric. Abbas had firmly pledged to leave the negotiations if settlement construction resumed. But now, as he consults the Arab League, he is giving Netanyahu a few days to forge a face-saving compromise.

Abbas is seeking support from a regional political body of 22 Arab states. Two member states of the Arab League, Egypt and Jordan, have separately signed a peace treaty with Israel. Though Saudi Arabia and Syria are centers of Arab clout, Washington has not paid sufficient attention to their vital role in the facilitation of peace.

The Arab League may find it undiplomatic for Abbas to quit the dialogue at such an early stage. There is an alternative to staying in or abandoning the talks. The League could recommend to Abbas to stay in the talks and introduce sobering and constructive conditions into the negotiating process. Would the League muster the courage to challenge the way negotiations are going?

Hopefully, Abbas will return from his regional consultation to the peace table empowered by a unified Arab strategy serving Palestinian independence and Israel’s security.

His first request in this empowered strategy is to revive the Syria-Israel peace track. Without Syria’s active and positive participation, peace will remain elusive.

Second, Abbas could propose that Hamas join the talks soon. Consequently, he should declare his intention to accelerate reconciliation within the Palestinian leadership.

Third, he should state that peace talks will influence Arab-Israeli relations. He should start with the positive. Abbas should assure his Israeli negotiation partners that peace would bring normalization between Israel and all the Arab states. The Arab states would shoulder a generous portion of compensation for the refugees. It is reasonable to show flexibility on future Palestinian state borders and right of return.

However, Abbas should warn that Israel’s hard-line politics would hurt its interests in the region. Relations of Egypt and Jordan with Tel Aviv would suffer, and may become unsustainable, if the occupation drags on and settlement expansion continues.

A final point in the new Arab league strategy relates to the United States. The Arab side must start treating the US as a negotiation partner, not simply as a convener or a donor state. Washington’s paralysis in pressuring Israel to stop the illegal housing remains perturbing. If Washington continues to be reflexively partial to Israel, the Arab states may well review their open tolerance for US military bases in the Gulf and massive American arm sales.

To achieve symmetry in peace negotiation, Abbas must re-enter the peace talks with collective regional clout to claim the liberation of Arab land and offer Israel lasting security. For the sake of achieving progress in peace making, settlement building should not be treated as an Israeli birth right. Settlements are the product of the occupation.