Who really wants to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian settlement?

[Wordie]

This article, although written before Sharon's illness changed the political landscape, reveals some important elements still in play today and is worth a read.

Who really wants to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian settlement?

By Yossi Alpher
Commentary by
Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Ostensibly, it is a fairly simple exercise to list those parties, Israeli and Palestinian, that do and do not seek to negotiate. In Israel, some of the Arab parties and the Zionist left (Meretz and the Labor Party under Amir Peretz) want, explicitly, to renew peace negotiations unconditionally. Kadima, the party headed by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, says it wants to negotiate in accordance with the "road map." What is left of the Likud will presumably adopt a similar official position. Even the far right and ultra-orthodox parties don't reject the principle of negotiation.

In Palestine, Fatah seeks immediate peace negotiations whereas Hamas appears to reject peace negotiations. Islamic Jihad certainly rejects negotiations, while the secular left-wing parties embrace negotiations.

But when we adopt a more nuanced approach and ask, "negotiate about what, and under what conditions?" the issue becomes far more complicated. Some parties on both sides profess to favor negotiations when in fact they set obviously unacceptable conditions, or they state clearly that they seek to negotiate something less than an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Some pledge their allegiance to the road map, while others want to go back to Oslo, or straight to the unofficial Geneva Initiative. Some who favor negotiations believe in the concept and possibility of a negotiated end-of-conflict agreement, while others acknowledge that they do not.

In order to focus discussion, let us concentrate on the leadership of the four parties or movements that are likely in one form or another to be running Israel and Palestine after the two sides' respective elections. In Israel, Kadima leader Ariel Sharon has stated on numerous occasions that he does not believe "the Arabs" are really ready for a genuine peace with Israel, and adds that the Palestinian Authority (PA) under President Mahmoud Abbas has failed to satisfy even the minimal road map conditions that would enable negotiations to commence. While he consistently endorses the road map, he appears mainly to want to be seen as coordinating his policy with that of U.S. President George W. Bush. Everything about Sharon's approach tells us that he has no intention of negotiating a road map phase III final-status agreement with Abbas, and would prefer either an interim agreement or another unilateral withdrawal.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=20905
Yossi Alpher, a former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, was a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons.org, an online newsletter on Israeli-Palestinians issues.

[tatertop]

1. Wish I had time to read this now

I hate commenting on articles I have not read.
Will get to it later. Looks interesting.