After London breakdown: What is the real gap between Arabs and Israel?
Palestine, Reporter's View, 5/6/1998

Analysts have not expressed any shock over the London peace meetings' result; all were expecting what happened.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu upon his return Jerusalem from his latest visit to Cairo displayed greater intransigence, declaring he would face international condemnation rather than risk Israel's security.

An important question has been raised asking why the Israeli prime minister visited Cairo before the London talks. Egyptian insiders said Netanyahu was busy trying to sell Egypt his plan for conditional withdrawal from south Lebanon -- a plan rejected by the two responsible sides, Lebanon and Syria -- in an attempt to break the unified stance of the two states and the Arab world.

At the same time, also before the London meetings Palestinian President Arafat announced publicly for the first time that he had accepted the U.S. initiative for a reported 13.1 percent Israeli troop withdrawal from the West Bank, adding that he would not accept anything less.

Back to Oslo and its agreement conditions, the first two phases of Israeli troop redeployment were supposed to be 40% of the West Bank. Then that number was lowered to 30%, then to 13% according to the U.S. proposal which Arafat accepted but Netanyahu has not. Most analysts are convinced that Arafat's acceptance of the U.S. initiative, which represents less than the minimum required for reviving the Palestinian track, was the main cause of the London meetings' breakdown because Arafat had laid all his cards out on the London negotiation table before the meetings.

The bartering over withdrawal percentages is shadow play.

So, what will be expected from the new Washington meetings? Netanyahu goes, comes and negotiates for only negotiation's sake, and it is well known that Arabs love to talk for talking's sake.

In fact, the lack of any real intention by Israel to have a resolution to this problem is the real gap between the two sides which must be narrowed before narrowing the gap of misunderstanding between Arabs and Israel.

Previous Stories:
  Hamas calls on Arafat reconsider policy   (5/5/1998)
  London talks end with failure   (5/5/1998)
  London talks: background   (5/4/1998)

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