One of the central challenges of Israel/Palestine debate here is the difficulty to see things through the lens of people on the other side of the debate. That is, it's often hard for the pro-P posters to see things the way a pro-I poster does, and vice-versa. This is doubly true when individual politicians are the subject.
Yesterday, a pro-P poster suggested that Binyamin Netanyahu may not be as awful as we all suspected, noting that he "is the only Israeli prime minister in recent history to not start a war with any neighboring Arabs, [and that he] actually diffused a crisis regarding the Kotel tunnel last time he was prime minister." Even if we might disagree on who started what, I had to admit that this was hardly a meritless argument.
And perhaps the facts are starting to bear that out.
Today's Yedioth Ahronoth reports on some very positive developments for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Saying that a "[d]ramatic development in [the] peace process" is possible, representatives of Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority have met, with "senior Egyptian and American officials...scheduled to hold discussions over the course of the next two weeks" to restart talks:
According to the sources, a team led by chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat had met with Israeli negotiators headed by Netanyahu advisor Attorney Yitzhak Molcho to determine the general guidelines for the peace talks.
One of these guidelines states that the process will result in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and that all of the core issues, including Jerusalem and the status of the Palestinian refugees, would be put on the table.
The parties, said the sources, agreed that the 1967 borders would be the basis for any negotiation. The Palestinians said Israel refuses to put a time limit on the negotiations, which they said would be conducted during the temporary settlement construction freeze recently declared by Israel.
The news comes on the heels of a Monday Agence France-Presse (AFP) report that the "United States is drafting two letters of guarantee for Israel and the Palestinians to serve as a basis for the relaunch of stalled Middle East peace talks." Perhaps an encouraging sign is the apparent willingness of both sides to talk:
In the West Bank, an aide to Abbas told Reuters there would be movement in the near future.
"The region will see important political activity in the next two weeks," said Nabil Abu Rdainah. "The Israeli position is not yet clear enough to the point of re-starting negotiations."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Netanyahu, replied that "the Israeli government hopes we will indeed see the resumption of talks with the Palestinians in the near future. We are ready."
(Reuters)
We've all seen promising hopes dashed before. And many, myself included, are particularly reluctant to get our hopes up this time when Israel is represented by the right-wing and deeply unlikeable Benyamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians are represented on one hand by the corrupt and ineffective Palestinian Authority and the terrorists in Hamas on the other.
Still, there's a "Nixon goes to China" possibility here. And maybe, just maybe, the few here who have begrudgingly embraced (or at least accepted) Netanyahu have a point we should all heed with regard to his ability to be a positive force for peace, or at least one willing to let peace happen without his interference. Wouldn't that make for a great 2010?