|
|
December 22, 2000/Kislev 25, 5761, Vol. 53, No.13
Optimists maintain hope for Mideast peace
DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
JERUSALEM - A sense of cautious optimism, not experienced for many months, was palpable this week in Jerusalem, Gaza and Washington as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators launched a new round of peace talks in the United States.
Despite the conventional wisdom that eleven weeks of violence can only have hardened positions on both sides, seasoned observers of the region discern more complex effects on public opinion among Israelis and Palestinians.
While fear and hatred have deepened, so has the realization - among Israelis and at least some Palestinians - that a negotiated settlement is the only way to end this conflict.
The breakthrough for the Washington talks apparently came the night of Dec. 16 after Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami met with senior Palestinian officials.
U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross is leading the U.S. team in separate talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials, including Ben-Ami and top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
In Israel, the political right has gained strongly in opinion polls since Palestinian violence began in late September.
At the same time, the polls still reflect broad support for a deal establishing a Palestinian state that lives peacefully beside Israel.
For their part, Palestinian groups, including Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah faction and the Islamic movements, went on strike this past week to protest the resumption of peace talks.
However, Palestinian officials quoted in the Israeli media were more positive about the benefits of a peace deal.
Officials from both sides insist that the sudden, dramatic intensification of diplomatic efforts is not connected to Israel's election timetable.
The Palestinians say it is not connected, either, to President Clinton's retirement Jan. 20.
Plainly, though, the political and diplomatic calendars are intimately intertwined.
Israel's election, scheduled for Feb. 6, creates not only a time frame but, inescapably, a target date.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak would like nothing more than to present the electorate with the draft of a comprehensive agreement with the Palestinians, personally endorsed by the most popular man in Israel, Bill Clinton.
Barak has said repeatedly that he sees the upcoming election as a choice between competing world views of peace and Israel's place in the region.
He has pledged to submit any agreement to a public referendum, but would prefer to do so in the form of a regular election.
The fact that Benjamin Netanyahu has withdrawn his candidacy makes the choice starkly clear, in the eyes of the Barak camp.
Barak supporters depict Likud Party candidate Ariel Sharon as a hard-liner, while Barak will present himself either as the man who brought home the long-sought peace agreement or the one who went as far as possible without jeopardizing Israel's vital interests.
Sharon, for his part, criticizes Barak as inexperienced, and says that if elected he will not honor an agreement concluded in the pre-election period, when Barak clearly has lost the confidence of the Knesset majority.
Labor says that Sharon agrees, in effect, that the election will serve as a referendum for the public to accept or reject a draft peace deal.
Some note, however, that if Barak loses it will be unclear whether the public is rejecting Barak's peace terms, or Barak himself, who has not been personally popular.
Occasionally obscured in the political maneuvering is the new give-and-take that might produce the accord that eluded Barak, Arafat and Clinton at the Camp David summit in July.
Top Palestinian sources claim that extensive preliminary meetings here in the region have revealed greater Israeli flexibility on the issue of the Temple Mount.
|
