 |
Why Is There No Political Will on Israel/Palestine? |
 |
Rice, Olmert and Abbas are scaling down their ambitions for the Israeli-Palestinian peace conference that will tentatively be held in Annapolis at the end of November:
Israeli and American officials have been so busy dampening expectations that they are not even calling the event a conference anymore, instead referring to it merely as a “meeting.â€
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are having trouble agreeing on even a short declaration about the shape of a final peace. Their leaders, Mr. Abbas and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, have a rough understanding on where they are heading, officials of both sides say, but they are afraid to write it down or say so publicly, given the political cost of any concessions.
Before the meeting, tentatively scheduled for Nov. 25-27 in Annapolis, Md., Israeli coalition members are warning Mr. Olmert not to go too far or get too specific. And Palestinian negotiators are squabbling among themselves, getting little firm direction from Mr. Abbas.
Barring a miracle, all of these lame ducks will leave their respective legacies unfulfilled. Bush and Rice will hand off to their successors a Middle East torn by strife from Gaza to Baghdad.
Why can we not move forward on a solution in Israel/Palestine? The situation is a humanitarian nightmare for the Palestinians, a political, economic, and military drain on the Israelis, and a major liability for the United States. The Israel/Palestine conflict distorts America’s image in the region above and in addition to the damage that the Iraq war has caused. Yet our leaders lack the political will to make serious moves toward resolution.
The US, the UN, the EU, Russia, and all major players in Israel and the Palestinian territories need to lock themselves into a room and not come out until there is a real solution - not a roadmap, not an accord, not a plan for a slow and complex transition, but a solution to be implemented as quickly as possible. Anything else is just empty talk.
Why no progress? Because nobody with leverage wants to use it. The Israelis have no leverage over the Palistinians, nor do the Palistinians have leverage over the Israelis. If Israel cracks down harder, they will lose world support. If Palestine revolts and grows more violent, they lose the hope of a free nation.
However, the U.S. and other countries that support Israel and Palestine respectively have leverage. Yet we don’t use it. Get some leaders willing to use their leverage and you’ll get movement on this issue. Disgusting.