PeaceWatch Volume 9 #5
December 23, 2007
Annapolis in Retrospect
Ami Isseroff
The Annapolis conference came and the Annapolis conference conference went. Despite the predictions of the apocalyptic
doomsayers of the left and right, the sky did not fall. Yossi Beilin's prediction that Gaza would "explode"
(see
Hamas and Syria will not watch television) if Hamas was
not included in the conference did not really come to pass, though the conference and the peace talks that began, lamely
enough, were greeted with an appropriate flourish of rockets. Instead of Gaza exploding, the Hamas and Fatah slugged it
out a bit on the anniversary of the Fatah, and Yossi Beilin found himself redundant in the Meretz party. The
Palestinians didn't get a really bad deal at Annapolis, as it was followed by a donors' conference that promised $7.4
billion in aid, and accompanied by an Israeli gesture of prisoner release. These are tiny steps in the right direction.
The doomsayers of the right were wrong as well. Israel has not yet been forced to accept millions of refugees and hasn't
been forced into terrible concessions.
The hype of the American administration was wrong too. There won't be a Palestinian state in a year, because Annapolis
ignored the central problem of Gaza entirely. There can't be peace as long as Hamas rule Gaza, as Mr. Abbas has little
to offer Israel (see It's the Gaza strip, stupid).
The Palestinians cannot solve this problem. Israel cannot solve this problem either. The United States and the
international community must solve this problem if there is to be a Palestinian state. Hamas will never agree to live in
peace with Israel. In fact, Hamas will never agree to anything that the Fatah accept, simply because they are political
rivals.
There is a lot more that everyone can do to advance Middle East peace. US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones
pointed out the importance of peace education, but much more than words are needed. It didn't occur to Jones that
America and other donors have to put their money where their mouths are. Suppose that just 10% of that aid, a mere 740
million, were earmarked for peace education and dialogue over the next three years? It would be little enough compared
to the huge expenditure on arms, police and similar necessities, and little enough compared to the huge resources
devoted to anti-peace action and education - to farfur the exploding Hamas mouse and other gimmicks designed to gets
kids to hate, as well as to settlement expansion and propaganda for settlement expansion, legitimation of Hamas and
other sorts of hate.
Ami Isseroff
A version of this article will appear at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log.
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PeaceWatch Volume 9 #4
August 12, 2007
Hamas and Syria will not watch television
Recently, Yossi Beilin gave a talk that illustrated both the realities and the illusions represented in the prospect of
dealing with, or ignoring Hamas.
According to the Ha'aretz article,
Beilin said it is vital Israel reach an agreement with Hamas,
directly or indirectly, before the Middle East summit scheduled for this
coming fall, otherwise Gaza may "explode."
Indeed, "explode" is an appropriate word to use when speaking of Hamas.
What
Beilin had in mind was that Hamas would stop the Qassam fire, and in return, Israel (and presumably the West) would
relax the blockade of Gaza.
Beilin pointed out that every day
another sector goes bankrupt in the strip.
That is possibly true, and it is making Palestinians increasingly dissatisfied with Hamas, which is the reason for the
blockade, and a good reason NOT to make an agreement with Hamas, and to give Mahmoud Abbas every chance to recover
control of Gaza, rather than legitimizing the Hamas government.
But Beilin raised an important point,
"I believe decision makers on both sides think that Hamas will sit back and
watch a peace agreement on television." Not only Hamas, but Syria as well will not sit back and watch a peace agreement
on television, and neither will Iran or the Hezbollah or the Islamic Jihad. Syrian officials have already written
op-eds explaining that the peace conference is part of a Zionist - American plot, which is aimed at destroying all the Arab
countries. That attitude from Syria is hardly surprising, given that it is a peace conference, and given the fact that
the conference is pretty much expressly designed to isolate Iran and Syria.
But when we strip the rhetoric of its authentic Middle-East flavored rhetoric, Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban's critique is
not without foundation:
In light of this analysis, the so-called peace conference that will convene in the fall aims to normalize relations between Israel and few more Arab countries. That is why vagueness is central to the endeavor, as the right of return for the Palestinians, Jerusalem and the Palestinian state become "political horizons" or "basic issues" or "matters of difference" without even being mentioned.
Indeed, there are many difficult issues that should be resolved ahead of the conference to avoid
catastrophic failure. And indeed we can expect that Syria, Hamas, Iran, Hezbollah and company will do everything in
their power to ensure that these issues, are quite literally, to borrow Beilin's word, "explosive."
It would be a pity if this little opportunity for peace were to be lost entirely because of poor
preparation, lack of courage and lack of leadership, but that may very well be exactly what happens.
Ami Isseroff
A version of this article will appear at MidEastWeb Middle East Web Log.
Rabin's Legacy: 11 years after - Hell is indifference
Farewell to a friend: Robert
Rosenberg - Pioneer of Internet for Peace
David Grossman: The Will to Peace>
It is past time to end the Gaza mess
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