Palestinian-Israeli talks: Fake impression of business as usual
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 2/19/1998

A new round of Palestinian-Israeli peace talks failed to reach any agreement and both sides are expected to continue their meetings next week at the house of the US ambassador to Israel, Ed Walker, in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv.

A meeting held Wednesday night at Walker's house between Palestinian chief negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat and Israeli cabinet secretary Dany Naveh failed to bridge the gap between the two sides amid mounting Palestinian complaints that Israel is "looking for every possible excuse not to honor its interim agreements with the Palestinians." Expectations are not high among the Palestinians, who feel that Israel is not interested at all in moving "even a single step forward" towards bridging the differences between the two sides.

Erekat said nothing was reached and stated that the differences with Israel remained as deep as they were before the meeting. Erekat said the US reviewed the work of seven sub-committees formed to discuss the implementation of the interim agreements and underlined a number of issues that the US hopes both sides will decide on how to advance. Erekat reiterated previous assessments by the Palestinians that there is no need for further sub-committees because everything "had been already discussed and agreed upon a way or another, but all is waiting for the Israeli political leadership to make the move and ratify those agreements."

Late last year, Palestinian and Israeli security officers negotiated and reached an agreement on security cooperation between the two sides, but it was Netanyahu who personally refused to ratify the agreement. The same, Palestinian sources said, applies to the rest of the issues on the agenda. "When we discuss with our Israeli counterparts in the sub-committees those issues, we find there is a great deal of understanding but once we ask them to sign the agreement, they blame the failure to take that step on the government, saying they need to get Netanyahu's approval," said a Palestinian source close to the negotiations with Israel.

Issues still awaiting an official Israeli decision pertain to the Gaza airport, Gaza harbor, safe passage between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as well as legal, civil and security issues and economic cooperation. Israel last week instructed its prison authority to prepare lists of names of Palestinian prisoners who have no Jewish blood on their hands, a euphemism for Palestinians sentenced for their part in military attacks on Israeli targets. Israeli sources noted that the list is usually updated in advance of the release of a new round of prisoners, but no official statement from Israel so far indicated that it plans to release prisoners in the near future.

Palestinians believe the round of talks are only meant to give the impression that business is proceeding as usual and noted that the US seems to be totally unwilling to come forward with any practical proposals for both the Palestinian and Israeli sides so long as the standoff with Iraq goes on. The Israelis, however, fear that a US pressure is forthcoming to force Israel to implement the second phase of its troop redeployment in the West Bank at a percentage close to 13 percent, in order to help the US Administration forge a new anti-Iraq coalition in the Arab world.

"Without any progress on the Palestinian track, the US will find it extremely difficult to obtain Arab support, even tacit, for a new military strike against Iraq," said a Palestinian observer last week. He noted that on the other hand, the US is cautious not to exert pressure on Israel, hoping that relaxed relations with her would make it easier to convince Israel to use self-restraint should it be attacked by Iraqi missiles.

Palestinian sources in Ramallah noted that for the Palestine government, it was also important to meet with the Israelis and gauge if there are any new ideas to move forward. However, the sources said, Israel returned to square number one and raised a number of security issues that were not even discussed in the past with regard to opening the Gaza International Airport and to other issues that were on the agenda. A senior Palestinian source close to the negotiations said that every time Israel is cornered and asked to make a step forward "security arrangements are raised and are used as a pretext to torpedo any progress."

Press reports from Washington said the US Administration asked both the Palestinian government and Israel to reach a compromise on the implementation of the interim agreements before the US finds itself "obliged to come forward with proposals of its own." The US proposals, the reports said, maintain that Israel should pull its troops out of 13 percent of areas totally under its control in the West Bank and demand that the PNA take further steps on the security track and ratify the amended version of the Palestinian National Charter, which had already been amended back in April 1996.

Meanwhile, a top PNA official, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Palestine Legislative Council speaker Ahmed Qurei' (Abu Ala') met with the Israeli minister of national infrastructure, Ariel Sharon last week but no results were reached in that meeting either. Palestinian sources said the meeting was to explore Israel's intentions with regard to the implementation of the interim agreements and check the scope of any Israeli redeployment in the West Bank.

Palestinian sources denied Israeli reports that the meeting Abu Mazen and Abu Ala' had with Sharon was part of a secret back channel of negotiations with Israel but "another venue of discussions based on the fact that Sharon has a considerably heavy weight in current politics in Israel."

Previous Stories:
  Hamas threatens to attack Israeli targets if US strikes Iraq   (2/17/1998)
  Pay your debts before entering Israel   (2/13/1998)
  Israel continues land confiscation and house demolitions   (2/11/1998)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search