The inevitable has happened. Those supposed peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians - brokered by the less-than-neutral Americans - have not only floundered but look like being totally off the rails for the foreseeable future.
Writing in "Bibi's Peace-Talk Halt: Bad Tactic — or Bad Faith?" in Forward J. J. Goldberg says that "Israel’s decision today to suspend peace talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, in response to yesterday’s Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, is really three distinct decisions. One is sensible. The second is understandable if questionable. The third is inexcusable."
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"Still, it’s the third part of today’s Israeli security cabinet decision, as reported in the Israeli press, that spells real danger. That’s the tentative plan, according to Ynet, Nana10 and other outlets, to “launch an international media campaign aimed at blackening the name” of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
According to Nana10, steps being considered include “publishing statements linking Abu Mazen’s name to the former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The goal is to convince international public opinion that Abu Mazen is not a partner for peace.”
The problem with behavior like that is not simply that it’s a lie. Israeli officials, mainly on the right, have been lying about Abbas’s record for years, twisting, misinterpreting or outright fabricating his statements in an effort to refute his commitment to coexistence and a two-state solution. It hasn’t convinced anyone who wasn’t already convinced. Worse, it’s done a lot to undermine the credibility of Israel’s own commitment to peace. It raises suspicions that Israel wants to delegitimize its negotiating partner so it won’t have to negotiate and end up making truly painful compromises. The legitimacy of smearing your partner as a hardball negotiating tactic is at best dubious.
But to launch a new and stepped-up campaign right now, with the very prospect of peace hanging by a thread and internal Palestinian negotiations entering a critical and delicate phase, is to poison the well. It undermines Abbas’s negotiating position vis a vis Hamas by making him look like an Israeli punching bag. And it makes Israel look like it’s doing its best to kill any chance of returning to the table.
It’s highly unlikely that Hamas will agree between now and the end of the year to tear up its founding platform and formally embrace the principle of a Palestine partitioned into two states for two peoples. Militant religious movements don’t jettison their catechisms that fast. It is quite possible, however, that Abbas and his Fatah negotiators could obtain Hamas agreement to accept domestic portfolios in a unity government while Fatah holds the foreign affairs and security slots and handles peace negotiations with Israel. Some Hamas leaders have suggested such an arrangement in the past, with the understanding that if the negotiations produce an agreement and it’s approved in a Palestinian referendum, Hamas will accept the public’s will and live with it without endorsing it.
It’s not such a hard arrangement to understand. After all, Netanyahu heads up an Israeli government that hasn’t approved the two-state principle he himself says he embraces. Indeed, two of his coalition’s four parties, including Naftali Bennet’s HaBayit HaYehudi-Jewish Home party and Bibi’s own Likud, are formally, flatly opposed to Palestinian statehood. Put differently, they haven’t recognized the Palestinians or their right to a state. Bibi’s made it clear that he considers himself mandated to conduct negotiations toward a goal that his own party and a majority of his coalition oppose. If he’s as serious about peace as he says he is, he ought to be able to accept a Palestinian negotiating partner that operates under the same rules he does."
Writing in "Bibi's Peace-Talk Halt: Bad Tactic — or Bad Faith?" in Forward J. J. Goldberg says that "Israel’s decision today to suspend peace talks with the Palestine Liberation Organization, in response to yesterday’s Fatah-Hamas reconciliation agreement, is really three distinct decisions. One is sensible. The second is understandable if questionable. The third is inexcusable."
****
"Still, it’s the third part of today’s Israeli security cabinet decision, as reported in the Israeli press, that spells real danger. That’s the tentative plan, according to Ynet, Nana10 and other outlets, to “launch an international media campaign aimed at blackening the name” of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen.
According to Nana10, steps being considered include “publishing statements linking Abu Mazen’s name to the former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. The goal is to convince international public opinion that Abu Mazen is not a partner for peace.”
The problem with behavior like that is not simply that it’s a lie. Israeli officials, mainly on the right, have been lying about Abbas’s record for years, twisting, misinterpreting or outright fabricating his statements in an effort to refute his commitment to coexistence and a two-state solution. It hasn’t convinced anyone who wasn’t already convinced. Worse, it’s done a lot to undermine the credibility of Israel’s own commitment to peace. It raises suspicions that Israel wants to delegitimize its negotiating partner so it won’t have to negotiate and end up making truly painful compromises. The legitimacy of smearing your partner as a hardball negotiating tactic is at best dubious.
But to launch a new and stepped-up campaign right now, with the very prospect of peace hanging by a thread and internal Palestinian negotiations entering a critical and delicate phase, is to poison the well. It undermines Abbas’s negotiating position vis a vis Hamas by making him look like an Israeli punching bag. And it makes Israel look like it’s doing its best to kill any chance of returning to the table.
It’s highly unlikely that Hamas will agree between now and the end of the year to tear up its founding platform and formally embrace the principle of a Palestine partitioned into two states for two peoples. Militant religious movements don’t jettison their catechisms that fast. It is quite possible, however, that Abbas and his Fatah negotiators could obtain Hamas agreement to accept domestic portfolios in a unity government while Fatah holds the foreign affairs and security slots and handles peace negotiations with Israel. Some Hamas leaders have suggested such an arrangement in the past, with the understanding that if the negotiations produce an agreement and it’s approved in a Palestinian referendum, Hamas will accept the public’s will and live with it without endorsing it.
It’s not such a hard arrangement to understand. After all, Netanyahu heads up an Israeli government that hasn’t approved the two-state principle he himself says he embraces. Indeed, two of his coalition’s four parties, including Naftali Bennet’s HaBayit HaYehudi-Jewish Home party and Bibi’s own Likud, are formally, flatly opposed to Palestinian statehood. Put differently, they haven’t recognized the Palestinians or their right to a state. Bibi’s made it clear that he considers himself mandated to conduct negotiations toward a goal that his own party and a majority of his coalition oppose. If he’s as serious about peace as he says he is, he ought to be able to accept a Palestinian negotiating partner that operates under the same rules he does."
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