Is Israel Jumping in the Peace Game?
**This just in : BBC News clip of Olmert interview broadcast today on BBC Arabic Television (I’m looking for the full interview). Longer BBC clip, more detailed article.
The New York Times reports that Israel has offered Lebanon talks on peace negotiations and land exchange. These talks are referring, of course, to the disputed Shebaa Farms.
Part of the negotiation, according to the New York Times, will include Israel releasing maps of land mines and cluster bombs left behind from the 2006 summer war.
This news follows reports that talks have started with Syria, via Turkish mediators, and it seems that talks with Lebanon might be a result of those negotiations.
The news comes the same day that a truce in Gaza sets in.
And read below for Reb Yudel’s post on last year’s unofficial peace deal offered as a way to solve the stalled talks on Golan.
Is this Olmert struggling to convince his people and the world that he’s not a corrupt, incompetent buffoon? Is this the US exerting back room pressure so Bush’s legacy can be secured? Or, is this, maybe, perhaps, possibly even real? (unlikely, but I hope so).
If I learned anything from reading A Missing Peace, Dennis Ross’ major work on his experience as the lead US negotiator from 1987-2001, it is that a huge chunk of what happens in these negotiations is over-dramatized jockeying and a whole lot of PR and acting.
So, whether or not this is real, it clearly sends a message to Israel’s people, its neighbors and the world that perhaps there are partners with whom to negotiate. Likewise, it shows a willingness of Israel’s neighbors to be more comfortable making diplomatic meetings, and perhaps even ties.
I may be cynical, but I’m hopeful.
And I just want to point out that, no matter how badly things have gone with the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israel has a flawless record (2 for 2) on successful peace treaties with actual states.
Both treaties have been successes, but I wouldn’t call our relations with Egypt and Jordan “peace.”
Sadly, Lebanon has responded.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7463394.stm
Both treaties have been successes, but I wouldn’t call our relations with Egypt and Jordan “peace.â€
Do you remember what relations with Egypt used to be like?
I don’t remember many things from before 1979, but I understand that the treaty has been a success, and our relations with Egypt are not peace.
While much of the Egyptian populace continues to engage in paranoid anti-Semitic and and anti-Israeli beliefs. (I even read in an Egyptian newspaper a few years back that Israel was about to invade and annex the Sinai peninsula), the actual government of Egypt meets daily with the government of Israel on all sorts of mutual concerns ranging from security to trade. There’s also a great deal of business that flows back and forth between the two nations.
Relations may not be that of close friendship, but to say it isn’t peace, is absurd– there’s too much face-to-face cooperation on a daily basis. It’s certainly not war.
That said: ultimately, any negotiations between Israel and Syria (and by extension, Israel and Lebanon) are the result of Syria and Lebanon coming to the table– Since Israel has had a stated policy of willingness to negotiate with both nations for decades (even if some Israeli leaders were less than enthused by the policy.)
Whatever Olmert’s personal and political reasons for his actions, he is obligated by past policy, and by his electorate, to engage in negotiations whenever Israel’s neighbors demonstrate anything resembling a sincere interest in peace. The Syrian and Lebanese governments are not similarly obligated by past precedent to do so (though there may very well be internal politics at work.)
It is certainly not war. Even more, the benefits of that treaty have been so great that it would have been worthwhile to give up more in the agreement than we actually did.
Nevertheless, there is virtually no tourism between the two countries. There indeed is an Israeli embassy in Cairo, that resembles a well-fortified military installation (from what I understand.) All Egyptian professional unions support a boycott of relations with Israel. The committees established as part of the Camp David process–to change the education of the peoples on each side toward each other–have been ignored. The Egyptian delegation to the UN spearheaded the movement to block Israel from increased acceptance on UN committees during the height of the “Oslo” years. The Egyptian dictator Mubarak was vocally adamant (at least in public) about Arafat not making any compromises on the Temple Mount during the 2000 Camp David Summit. Almost all opposition political parties in Egypt oppose the treaty with Israel. And, if we are to believe the Western press, the most popular pop song in Egypt during 2001 was entitled “I hate Israel.”
To me, that is not peace.
“…there is virtually no tourism between the two countries”
uhm… have you been to Sinai?
Fine. There is much Israeli tourism to Sinai. There is virtually no tourism between the two countries, other than the Israelis who visit the Sinai.
Since Israel has had a stated policy of willingness to negotiate with both nations for decades (even if some Israeli leaders were less than enthused by the policy.)
That is true. However, Israel also had an unstated policy not to negotiate with both nations for more than decades, and there were no Israeli leaders not enthused by that one.
There is virtually no tourism between the two countries, other than the Israelis who visit the Sinai.
There is also virtually no tourism between Israel and Jordan. Or Israel and Qatar or Israel and the Maldives. Why go to a more expensive country to see things you have in your own?
“There is also virtually no tourism between Israel and Jordan. Or Israel and Qatar or Israel and the Maldives. Why go to a more expensive country to see things you have in your own?”
Ok, so we agree.
There is also virtually no tourism between Israel and Jordan. Or Israel and Qatar or Israel and the Maldives. Why go to a more expensive country to see things you have in your own?
Yes, yes, like oppressed brown people. Israel has plenty of those. Why see some other country’s impoverished and disempowered Arabs? There’s plenty in Israel!
And expensive perhaps in Qatar near the hotels. But have you bought shewarma in Jordan? Cheeeeeeap.
“Yes, yes, like oppressed brown people. Israel has plenty of those. Why see some other country’s impoverished and disempowered Arabs? There’s plenty in Israel!”
That’s exactly why we need to redraw the borders, so that those disempowered Arab can become empowered—in their own country.