One fallacy about the US-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli direct talks scheduled for September 2 seems to escape attention: There is nothing 'direct' about the talks. The timing of the meeting undoubtedly favours the Israelis. The summit will be at a juncture when the Palestinian community is polarized, weak and besieged by waning Arab support and enthusiasm. The Israelis are going to Washington with a self-serving agenda and not simply turning up for a photo opportunity. Even if involuntary participants, the 'peace-troika' - Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia - provide the required Arab cover in order to give the talks an added air of seriousness and weight, they don't provide the legitimacy the talks desperately require. The first two are the only signatories of peace treaties with Israel. The third is a key US ally and whose blessing of the talks is needed to garner morale for the Arab parties. The talks are being packaged in international diplomatic rhetoric as the beginning of a process for a congenial forum towards a 'taswiyah' (as the cliché phrase goes: final, durable and peaceful settlement fulfilling Israeli and Palestinian nationalist aspirations). At the core of the somewhat inflated optimism about the talks is the `crafting' of a diplomatic solution within a 12 to 24 months time span.
One fallacy about the US-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli direct talks scheduled for September 2 seems to escape attention: There is nothing 'direct' about the talks. The timing of the meeting undoubtedly favours the Israelis. The summit will be at a juncture when the Palestinian community is polarized, weak and besieged by waning Arab support and enthusiasm. The Israelis are going to Washington with a self-serving agenda and not simply turning up for a photo opportunity.
Even if involuntary participants, the 'peace-troika' - Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia - provide the required Arab cover in order to give the talks an added air of seriousness and weight, they don't provide the legitimacy the talks desperately require. The first two are the only signatories of peace treaties with Israel. The third is a key US ally and whose blessing of the talks is needed to garner morale for the Arab parties.
The talks are being packaged in international diplomatic rhetoric as the beginning of a process for a congenial forum towards a 'taswiyah' (as the cliché phrase goes: final, durable and peaceful settlement fulfilling Israeli and Palestinian nationalist aspirations). At the core of the somewhat inflated optimism about the talks is the `crafting' of a diplomatic solution within a 12 to 24 months time span.
The skepticism which plagued the Palestinian camp prior to the recent relaunch of direct Middle East peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority has all but disappeared, aides to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the Arabic language London-based newspaper Al-Hayat on Saturday.
However, whether that reflects their real feelings about the process I would say it was unlikely. keep to the Fen Causeway
