Is There a Future for the Arab Israeli Peace Process?

Should the world, particularly the United States, finally simply wash their hands of any future attempts to force a peace between Israel and the greater Arab world, which has been rebranded to the Palestinian-Israeli peace process in order to frame the Arab side as vulnerable and weak against the Israeli menace instead of the honest assessment that it is tiny little Israel against the wider Arab and Muslim worlds. But perhaps a quick review of the origin of this kicked dead horse called the Oslo Accords is required. The entire suicidal death spiral which owes its origins to the leftist conceived dream called the Oslo Accords that was negotiated in secret and sprung upon Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin as a fair accompli by a cabal headed by Yossi Beilin and Simon Peres may have finally hit rock bottom. The Oslo Accords defeated the progress which had been established which was incorporating the Palestinian Arab population into Israeli society eventually ending the steady rise in economic stability and higher standard of living for the Arab Palestinians in Gaza, Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem. The Oslo Accords returned arch terrorist Yasser Arafat and his leaders of the PLO to the West Bank from their exile in Tunisia. This almost immediately froze the advance of the Palestinian economic gains and reversed the trend resulting in an economic collapse returning much of the population of Arab Palestinians to the levels they suffered under Jordanian governance. It is highly doubtful that the Oslo Accords could ever have been enacted if the negotiations had been conducted out in full view and under the light of reasoned inspection. Instead of open honesty and working to incorporate the Palestinian Arab population into Israeli society and raising their standard of living, the secrecy that produced the Oslo Accords drove the Palestinian Arab areas into the arms of Yasser Arafat and the PLO which led to the destruction of the Palestinian economy and the theft of billions of dollars of aid which had been given to aid the Palestinian people but instead ended up in Yasser Arafat and his cronies’ Swiss bank accounts.

 

The news has given some cursory coverage to the latest fiasco disguised as peace talks falling upon the hard and sharp rocks of reality and lying smashed at the bottom of a dark chasm quoting numerous American administration officials giving equivocating reasons as to where lies the blame, needlessly to point out, placing it equally on both parties as impartiality is far more urgently important than honest evaluations. This particular rendition of the painfully never ending rounds of mislabeled peace talks had as their original foundation, as every other beginning session has contained, an Israeli set of concessions as a bribe to give Palestinian leadership cover for negotiating with the Israelis. The first rule of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is every installation of process must have at its origin Israeli concessions and the Palestinians must never be requested to make any form of reciprocal offers. This time the bribe was in the form of Terrorist Prisoner releases, one-hundred-four of them in four groups of twenty-six. The initial understanding was that Israel would release the first group as the negotiations began and the following releases would be conditioned on the progress made within the negotiations. Despite the near complete lack of measurable progress, the Israelis kept their end of the arrangement in hopes that maybe there could be a breakthrough bartered or forced by the United States. When a little more than six weeks before the end of the initial nine-month end of negotiations, there began pronouncements by different Palestinian spokespersons calling for them to quit the peace negotiation as they saw no future in the talks as they were determined not to compromise on even a single one of their demands. Abbas repeatedly refused to walk out of the talks promising he would remain talking just to get the last twenty-six terrorist prisoners released. This spawned growing animosity on the Israeli side towards going forward with the final release of terrorists. When it became apparent that the ruling coalition could break down over releasing the last group, Prime Minister Netanyahu informed Secretary of State Kerry that he would require some sign of progress towards a real and lasting peace in order to release the final group of terrorists otherwise releasing them would force new elections in Israel thus placing the entirety of the talks in jeopardy. When Israel held back on the final release of terrorists demanding some sign of progress towards reaching a peace agreement, the Palestinians blew-up the peace talks walking away and applying to fifteen United Nations and international groups, conventions and agencies. This move not only violated the conditions around this set of peace talks, this directly negated the entirety of the Oslo Accords.

 

When Secretary of State Kerry then attempted to have the Palestinians recall their applications in order to reinstate the talks, Palestinian Chairman Abbas refused regardless of any offer. Probably in response to Secretary Kerry’s interest in reestablishing the peace talks, Chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat cited the seven conditions to be relayed to Israel on Wednesday night. The seven demands were:

1. A written letter from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in which he gives a commitment that the Palestinian state will be established and that its capital will be East Jerusalem.

2. The release of 1,200 terrorists, which the PA says was agreed upon when Ehud Olmert was prime minister. These include multiple-murderer Marwan Barghouti, PFLP leader Ahmed Saadat, and Fuad al-Shubaki, who was responsible for the attempt to smuggle a huge amount of arms into Gaza on board the Karine A.

3. Implementation of the agreement on checkpoints and removal of the siege on Gaza.

4. The return of the Church of Nativity expellees. (The IDF besieged the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem April 2 to May 10, 2002, as part of Operation Defensive Shield, after 39 terrorists had holed up there. The terrorists took shelter in the famous church, and used about 40 priests and nuns as a shield, knowing Israel would not take a chance on inadvertently hurting priests and nuns. The siege was ended through an agreement that involved exiling the terrorists to other countries.)

5. The granting of full Israeli citizenship to 15,000 Palestinian Arabs in a process of family reunification.

6. A halt to construction in eastern Jerusalem and the reopening of PA institutions there which have been closed down by Israel.

7. No more entry by IDF forces into areas under PA control, no more arrests and eliminations, and the handing over of Area C to PA control.

 

On Thursday, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been the Israeli negotiator in the peace talks with Palestinian Authority, announced that the fourth and final batch of terrorist releases has been officially cancelled due to the Palestinian Authority’s unilateral move. Following on Friday, Deputy Education Minister Avi Wortzman (Jewish Home) sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority stating, “They demanded independence, and we gave it to them. They demanded recognition of a Palestinian State, and we gave it to them. They demanded weapons and we gave them to them. They demanded Hevron, and we gave it to them. They demanded Gaza, and we gave it to them. They demanded terrorist releases, and we gave it to them, again and again. In response: we received attacks, we received wounded and dead, we received damage to our economy. Now they’re coming back and demanding we withdraw to ’67 borders, with eastern Jerusalem as their capital. If we do it, G-d forbid, what will they ask for tomorrow? It’s time to demand that we stop giving. It’s time to put our existential needs and our security before their demands. The time has come to say it clearly: this is our country. Ours; period.” Stated simply, Wortzman rejected the Palestinian’s demands.

 

Kerry declared he would be speaking with President Barack Obama about the future of the talks stating, “I will be having conversations with the administration today, including the president, and we’re going to evaluate exactly what is possible and what is not possible. There are limits to the amount of time and effort that the United States can spend if the parties themselves are unwilling to take constructive steps. Both parties say they want to continue, neither party has said they want to call it off; but we’re not going to sit there indefinitely, this is not an open-ended effort.” Kerry said in Algiers at the start of a trip to North Africa on Thursday, “You can facilitate, you can push, you can nudge, but the parties themselves have to make fundamental decisions to compromise. The leaders have to lead, and they have to be able to see a moment when it’s there.”

 

From the Palestinians came this report from an official adding that Kerry had stated that Israel was planning a harsh response against the PA over the move. He further claimed Abbas said in response that “our requests are not excessive. Israel’s threats do not scare anyone, and they can do what they want.” Additionally, former Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath explained adding, “I believe that Kerry will be back because he has not yet abandoned the process. We will continue negotiations as agreed and I hope the patience of Americans will end towards the Israelis, not towards the Palestinians.” This statement gives the basic reason behind why these negotiations never make progress towards reaching peace, the Palestinians senseless demands that Israel acquiesce to their every demand while they never be expected to even address anything Israel posits they require. The Palestinians have a series of demands which if all of them are met there would be no Israel as a home for the Jewish People and if they ever do accept anything less; they will require that such an agreement leaves Israel almost completely unable to defend themselves from a future Arab attack.

 

The Israelis, with a few notable and expected exceptions such as Yair Lapid, Isaac Herzog, and Zehava Gal-On, appear to have finally reached the end of their collective ropes and may finally decide that annexation and incorporating the Palestinian Arabs who are willing to agree to accept Israeli rule into a pathway to full citizenship while offering those who refuse such the opportunity to accept a one-time payment of compensation to leave Israel and take up residence in another country. Such a move would also result in the end of any possibility for a right of return for the over five-million so-called refugees residing in other Arab nations. Perhaps, with even a minimal effort from the majority of Palestinians, the newly united Israel can return to the path on which the two societies were moving together before Oslo to the mutual benefit of all as fellow countrymen. It will require a complete overhaul of the Palestinian education system from one teaching separation and hatreds to one teaching unity and cooperation. This is the sole future that offers hope for both people and has a proven record in the industries and the Ariel University in areas of the so-called disputed lands where Palestinians and Israelis, Jews, Muslims and Christians work and study together with full acceptance and cooperation. It is exactly these ventures and examples which the BDS and other haters of Israel refuse to recognize and attempt to keep hidden from the rest of the world. It is also these ventures which have recently been turning the heads and opinions of numerous European politicians and leaders who have been shown the progress made in these efforts. May such efforts expand and a general acceptance and mutual assistance move the real possibilities for peace move forward.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

United Nations Duplicity on Full View

The duplicity in the treatment Israel is subjected to by the United Nations was on display this week, though not particularly unusual to the norm at the world body. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon released a statement Wednesday condemning Israel’s announcement to build 1,500 new housing units in Jerusalem. The statement read, “Settlement activity is contrary to international law and constitutes an obstacle to peace. Any measures that prejudge final status issues will not be recognized by the international community.” Ban Ki-moon then released a second statement which expressed his personal approval and that he “understands that Israel took a difficult step in continuing to release Palestinian pre-Oslo prisoners in the face of deep domestic opposition, and appreciates this gesture.” Apparently Israel is to be commended for releasing terrorist murderers who have the blood of innocents on their hands but when Israel intends to build housing units in its Capital City of Jerusalem they are to be condemned as committing reprehensible acts. This comes in addition to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s persistent demands condemning any Israeli presence in Judea and Samaria and the silence of the United Nations responding to a complaint filed against Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas issuing a condolence letter to the family of Mohammed Assi, the terrorist who was responsible for a 2012 Tel Aviv bus bombing attack, who died earlier this week resulting from a shootout near a cave near Dolev in the western Binyamin region where he was holed up in an attempt to avoid capture.

 

The slow but steady disintegration of the original United Nations position on the lands either liberated or captured, depending on which areas under consideration, and their current position vis-à-vis the Palestinian claims to their presumed rights to all of the lands captured from Jordan during the Six Day War in June 1967 are completely contradictory. Read the original declaration in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 which states that Israel was to withdraw and return from most of the newly disputed territories and it makes clear that Israel does not have to return every inch of the disputed lands as they now claim. The United States and most of the other nations in the Security Council read this as allowing for Israel to retain some of the lands from their defensive war against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. When Israel made their peace with Egypt and returned the entirety of the Sinai Peninsula a few years after Israel having to fight a second defensive war in 1973 Yom Kippur War a plurality of nations including the United States viewed that as sufficient to meet the requirements set out in Resolution 242. Even those who would prefer that Israel be forced back to the borders which invited the initial attack in 1967 were willing to accept Israel retaining Judea and Samaria (West Bank) allowing Israel to retain these areas and have the Jordan River and the Jordan Valley as a natural defensive position allowing for a more secure border for Israel. This concept has been slowly eroded through heavy propaganda operations by the Arab nations and their allies. The greatest ploy was the invention of an indigenous Arab peoples, the Palestinians, who adapted the Jewish historical accounts from the Bible and invented a new history which denied the existence of any Jewish state ever throughout history in the Middle East and replaced the Jews with the so-called Palestinian people.

 

Today the world acts as if it was Israel who attacked all of her neighbors in 1967 and again in 1973 and that Israel not only is required by International Law to return the lands gained in an offensive war but that their denial of the Palestinians rights to much of the lands between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The truth is that under International Law a nation which is attacked and defeats their adversaries in a defensive war is entitled to retain all of the lands gained if they should as compensation for their having been the victimized nation and to inflict some form of punishment on the aggressor nations. International Law has been turned on its head in reference to Israel and the two defensive wars she has fought against her neighbors. The truth be told, the Israelis were entitled to retain the entire Sinai Peninsula. Furthermore, the Israelis have never fought a war with the Palestinians as they did not exist until after the wars were fought thus they have no valid claim to any of the lands. As former citizens of Jordan, one of the aggressor nations in the Six Day War, they are still entitled to reside in their homes but have no valid claim to citizenship in Israel or to establish their own independent nation or even semiautonomous lands within Israel. The sole right they have if they desire citizenship is to return to Jordan and exercise their rights as former Jordanian citizens. Of course this too has been twisted beyond any recognition and the Palestinians have been exalted as a bereaved and oppressed peoples whose lands were stolen from them in some conflict.

 

Nobody when challenged can name the conflict which occurred between Israel and a Palestinian nation. Nobody can even honestly tell of the existence anywhere than in some overly active imaginations the existence of a land called Palestine throughout history. But the United Nations does not allow little items such as facts, reality or even their own Security Council Resolutions stand in the way of their drive to destroy the Jewish state and wipe Israel from the pages of history and remove it from any future. Why Israel remains a member of the United Nations is somewhat puzzling as by retaining membership Israel allows the United Nations to have sway and influence over Israel’s future and daily life as well as her existence as a recognized nation. The unfortunate truth is eventually Israel will be challenged and dissolved by the United Nations when they vote to rescind the General Assembly declaration which allowed Israel to come into existence and suggested the Arabs also form a state alongside Israel. That would have given the not yet imagined Palestinian people their homeland without the need for wars or any other action but the Arab League refused such a proposition and instead attempted to destroy Israel on her first day of life. Fortunately they failed utterly and Israel almost doubled in size. After that defensive war Israel was permitted under International Law to retain the lands gained. Things worked and offensive wars lost had consequences. Eventually there will come the day that the United Nations will attempt to enforce their decree to erase Israel from the memory and the future of the world and there will be one last war pitting Israel against the rest of the world. The resulting consequences of this errant insult to all the conventions between civilized nations will surprise those who have not read the prophesies which have already seen this eventuality.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Is Netanyahu About to Pull an Ariel Sharon?

Since the very first day after Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu accepted as the first party into his current coalition the Hatnuah Party and placed its leader Tzipi Livni as the new government’s Minister of Justice and placed Ms. Livni as the lead negotiator of the Israeli negotiations team with the Palestinians, I have had a creeping suspicion that Netanyahu was going to fall on his sword in order to satisfy President Obama and allow anything to be bargained away if it produced a treaty. What made things even worse, Netanyahu announced that she would have complete freedom and full latitude to do whatever she believed was necessary to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians in the model of the two state solution. The presumed safety catch that would limit anything that Minister of the Knesset Livni may eventually give away was presumably that there would have to be a Knesset vote to ratify any potential treaty and then if particular lands given away met the criteria, then there would also be a referendum of the Israeli people to decide whether or not any treaty would be accepted and ratified. But even here there are some suspicions and recent events and announcements have only served to deepen my qualms that all is not well in Jerusalem.

 

Before we theorize on the future and what we believe are the signs we will need to be on the lookout for and where such paths lead, perhaps we should review some of the most pertinent facts from the Gaza disengagement fiasco and what the steps were the last time such events transpired. The first item was that the President of the United States was George W. Bush who was perceived to be a good friend of Israel and one who, while not perfect, at least was not going out of his way to destroy and compromise Israel. The Secretary of State was Condoleezza Rice, who despite her misconceptions and misgivings such as believing the Palestinians were being persecuted in a similar manner to the Black Americans during the Jim Crow era; despite her idiosyncrasies, Secretary Rice honestly thought she was working towards a good end and really pursued peace and a better future for all, both the Palestinians and the Israelis; and despite their intents, the Bush Administration fell into a number of traps which doomed their efforts we can claim with some assurance as to its validity that they had honest and good intentions. Their first misstep was their decision to force Prime Minister Ariel Sharon into disengaging all Israeli presence from the Gaza Strip and turning it over to Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinians presumably so that the Palestinian leadership could demonstrate their abilities to rule and manage their own areas and live at peace alongside the Israelis. The thought was that once the Palestinian leadership had proved to administrate the Gaza Strip while preventing any terrorist attacks on Israelis or their territories, then the final formation of a Palestinian State could proceed without any further problems.

 

The next set of problems followed rapidly one on top of the next. President Bush gave Prime Minister Sharon guarantees that after Israel had released their control over the border areas between Egypt and Gaza, also known as the Philadelphia Corridor, that the European Union monitors and real-time remote video monitoring by Israeli security experts would prevent the movement of weaponry into Gaza as well as monitoring the passage of people interdicting any suspected terrorists. Soon thereafter it was time for the Palestinian government to hold elections. Big mistake number two was cued up as Secretary of State Rice insisted, with the backing of President Bush, that all factions be permitted to field candidates for the Palestinian Parliament, of course including Hamas. Despite warnings from Israel, Mahmoud Abbas, and numerous Middle East experts who warned that allowing Hamas to field candidates would guarantee that Hamas would take the majority of the seats and rise to unseat Fatah as the majority in the Palestinian Authority, the elections were held allowing Hamas candidates who won a majority of the seats as the Palestinians voted for anybody but Fatah as they perceived that Hamas would not commit fraud anywhere near the levels which had been rampant to date in the Palestinian Authority. The Hamas victory scared the living daylights out of Abbas who feeling certain that Hamas would also replace him as President and Chairman of the Palestinian Authority forcing him to cancel elections for these offices in order to preserve his positions. The Americans saw no problem with this as the overwhelming Hamas sweep in the Palestinian parliamentary elections had shaken their trust that they understood the Palestinian’s moods and proclivities. Soon the worst of the disasters that followed one after another came to fruition as Hamas executed a violent coup and took complete control over the Gaza Strip forcing Fatah and their portion of the Palestinian Authority from Gaza to Judea and Samaria, the West Bank. With Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, the European Union monitors made a quick retreat from their posts back to their hotels in Israel never to return to their posts after which the Hamas personnel who took control of the Rafah Crossing destroyed the video monitoring equipment. This forced Israel to rely on the good graces of Egypt to monitor the Egypt-Gaza interchange which fortunately was more successful than one might have originally expected. As it turned out, the Egyptians had issues with Hamas as Hamas was directly tied to the Muslim Brotherhood which gave Egyptian President Mubarak reasons to be suspicious and to actually monitor the border.

 

Today the President of the United States Barack Obama is considered not exactly a trusted friend to Israel and some of the members of his Administration are equally not to be trusted by Israel. Some of those who cause both politicians and residents in Israel the most qualms would include Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power and some might add Vice President Biden though his record is not as adverse as others are. As anyone who has been watching the news out of Israel and the Palestinian areas has noted, the negotiations have been reinstated but at considerable cost to the Israelis who were cajoled and pressed into releasing over the period of the negotiations up to one-hundred-four terrorists who were serving life sentences, some multiple life sentences, and had much Israeli blood on their hands in order to entice and give proper cover for Mahmoud Abbas to agree to negotiate. Of course Israel only received the privilege of holding talks for their unprecedented concessions. Even with such a sacrifice by the Israelis in releasing many terrorists whom they had refused to release numerous times before, this momentous gesture was challenged by the Palestinian leadership who demanded even more. They demanded that the borders for their state be debated from the standpoint that they were to be assumed to be starting on the 1949 Armistice Lines and included every inch of the contested areas of Judea and Samaria plus they insisted they include all of Eastern Jerusalem including all of the Old City and Temple Mount. Israel refused to grant such a request but it has been leaked that Secretary of State Kerry assured Abbas that he would steer any discussion over borders in a direction that would meet his demand. Then, almost immediately after the first meeting when the Israelis announced their intention to build housing in parts of Jerusalem and the surrounding Israeli towns which the Palestinians claim is on their lands the Palestinians threatened to terminate the negotiations unless the Israelis instituted a building freeze immediately and were prevented from realizing such plans. This fortunately blew up in their faces as Secretary Kerry, to his credit, announced that the Palestinians had been offered a building freeze but had chosen the prisoner release instead and that they had been informed that such an announcement of the building was coming within the near future and they had not objected at that time. This squelched their threat to end the negotiations.

 

The negotiations are supposed to be held in complete silence with nothing to be released to the press or announced in any other manner. Thus far that criterion has unfortunately held. The first sign that trouble is on the horizon came this week when Shelly Yachimovich announced that the Labor Party is ready, willing and very able if not anxious to replace Bayit Yehudi and Naftali Bennett in order to assure that any treaty will be enacted without any difficulties. Here are some of the signs that we need to look for in the coming months of this presumably nine-month series of negotiations which are to produce a workable treaty. There will be meetings out of which there will be no announcements or release to the press held by Prime Minister Netanyahu with his inner cabinet, the same people who voted to allow the release of the hundred plus terrorists. Lead negotiator Tzipi Livni will be noticeable at each of these meetings and may even appear to have a spring in her step and a bright smile that refuses to droop. Eventually there will be disagreements which at some point will lead to a rearrangement of the makeup of the coalition. We will begin to hear rumors that Naftali Bennett and his Bayit Yehudi are being marginalized and may soon be replaced in the coalition. At the same time it is possible that Yair Lapid and the Yesh Atid Party may also be mentioned as inhibiting certain objectives and may join Bennett in being replaced in the coalition. The new coalition will replace these two Zionist parties with Shas and Labor both of whom will willingly and enthusiastically approve virtually any peace agreement hammered out by Tzipi Livni and Saeb Erekat.

 

Many people would claim that this would not make any difference as any peace treaty if it requires surrender of any sizeable amount of territories must face a referendum of the people and the Israelis would never allow Jerusalem to be divided or for all of the lands beyond the Green Line to be forfeited to the Palestinians. The problem here is the wording as I have been led to understand is rather vague on which lands being forfeit would require a referendum by the people. The last item which will signal an imminent disaster will be the start of a debate in the United States over providing peacekeeping troops to be placed in the new Palestinian State to prevent terrorist attacks and keep everything quiet between the new Palestinian State and Israel. Needless to point out that the American peacekeepers will provide little protection and instead simply provide the terrorists a plethora of targets until they are pulled due to overwhelming demands by the Americans themselves as their ire is raised over mounting casualties. Once we get to the point that there are debates in the United States over providing peacekeepers the only salvation which Israelis may pray for is either the American public raising a holy eruption of indignation that prevents President Obama from following through with his promise to provide peacekeepers or for Heavenly intervention. My prayers will be for Heavenly intervention.

 

Beyond the Cusp