Sunday, September 18, 2011

Abbas, serial peace rejectionist

Dan Margalit

The dossier of documents that Defense Minister Ehud Barak took to the Unites States on Saturday night contained no radical formula for averting an anticipated Israeli-Palestinian clash at the U.N. It merely held more formulas of the kind we are used to. At this stage in the ever-deepening rift, these will not suffice to persuade Ramallah to choose negotiations over a verbal altercation at the Security Council and General Assembly. Mahmoud Abbas is a serial rejecter of peace. He proved this twice, at Camp David in 2000 and again in 2009, when he beat a hasty retreat from Ehud Olmert, who had just offered him the whole world. Even those who claim that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu piled up too many preconditions – and I am one of those – admit that Abbas was the one who refused to restart talks. This fact stuck out like a sore thumb when he failed to take advantage of a ten-month settlement construction freeze to engage in concrete dialogue with Israel.

Our government's position is reasonable and justified. Yet while we have stood firm, the entire Middle East has changed beyond recognition. First came the terrifying Arab Spring and now Turkey's aggressive new stance in the Middle East.

At this juncture, the question is not how reasonable our position is but how important it is for Israel to again prove that we are not the cause of the Israel-Palestinian crisis. With our allies worn out, weary and frazzled by a battered economy, the new circumstances almost dictate that Israel prove to its friends that it was not our hands that spilled this diplomatic blood. In other words, we should consider renewing the experiment of a temporary construction freeze.

The logical shepherd for this strategy should have been Moshe (Bogey) Ya'alon – the person who more than others correctly developed a strategy of "crisis management" if the Palestinians refuse to compromise with Israel. The aim is to lower the flames. In practical terms, what is Israel willing to do so that our friends, mired in their own troubles, don't push us into a corner of international isolation?

Due to the dramatic changes in the Middle East – the historical trends that Netanyahu described – perhaps we should consider conducting another laboratory test to prove that we are responsive to requests for a temporary construction freeze in the settlements? Everyone knows it is a phony demand. In the 44 years since the settlement enterprise began, Israel has only populated 2 percent of Judea and Samaria. But it is the excuse Palestinians are using. It is Abbas' pretext. For Israel, a construction freeze would mean a limited period of time without building starts followed by accelerated building, as happened in 2010. By way of comparison, Israel has a two-year budget, with building starts occurring every two years.

U.S. President Barack Obama will meet with Netanyahu on Wednesday. We've reached the culmination of a period in which Israel owes more and more to its powerful ally. If the prime minister wishes to express his appreciation for the American president, they could work together to pull the rug out from under the Palestinian chairman just hours before his U.N. speech. Only Netanyahu can decide if this is a worthwhile step.

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