Who needs confidence building measures
The Arab states - whose attempts to destroy Israel led to wars in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973 - insist that Israel must take the first step to create 'confidence' since Israel is the 'occupier' ('occupier' of what?). But as Herb Keinon points out, Israel has more than ample grounds to insist that the Arabs be the ones to go first. One might argue, in response to [Egyptian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hossam] Zaki, that by letting Yasser Arafat set up a Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Gaza following the Oslo Accords, by negotiating with that PA twice for an almost complete pullback from the West Bank, by uprooting two dozen settlements and withdrawing totally from the Gaza Strip four years ago, by most recently removing dozens of roadblocks in the West Bank, Israel has made some "movements."But we shouldn't expect any help on this front from the Obama administration:
Mubarak and Zaki's comments dovetail nicely with what Saudi Foreign Affairs Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on July 31, standing next to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the State Department.
"Incrementalism and a step-by-step approach has not and - we believe - will not achieve peace," he said. "Temporary security, confidence-building measures will also not bring peace."
The prince essentially said that Obama was dreaming if he thought the kingdom would take any gestures toward Israel until all the conditions the Saudis set for a peace agreement in their Arab peace initiative - a complete withdrawal from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, as well as a just solution to the Palestinian refugee issue - would be met.
Couple all of that with the strident, angry, combative rhetoric that was heard at the Fatah conference in Bethlehem last week, and one can only conclude that the Arab world simply doesn't understand something very basic - that coming off the second intifada that followed the Camp David talks in 2000, and bouncing back from the creation of Hamastan that followed Israel's pullback from the Gaza Strip, Israel now needs its confidence built.
Once Obama publicly and unequivocally called for a total settlement freeze, he made it all but impossible for the Arabs to accept anything short of that. He set the bar too high, and now the Arabs can just sit in the bleachers and wait to see whether Israel jumps over it. They don't have to do anything.Don't hold your breaths waiting for anything to happen.
This issue came up in an interview two months ago with Florida congressman and close Obama ally Robert Wexler, who said that Israel should simply declare a settlement moratorium, and by so doing put the ball into the Saudis' court, call their bluff, see if they would deliver.
When asked why the Saudis don't first make their gestures, something that would then make it easier for Netanyahu to sell a freeze to his coalition and the public, Wexler got a bit annoyed.
"This is childish," he said. "It's like, 'I'll give you my ball if you give me yours first.'"
Childish or not, after years of feeling that it was giving and giving to the Palestinians, and not getting anything but terrorism in return, the Israeli public now wants something up front.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:57 PM
2 Comments:
It is past time to hold an accounting of what Israel has given and the 'Palis' have failed to give. Make the world and governments aware of the accounting. So the next initiative that someone wishes to impose their twisted view of peace, haul out the accounting document, show what is needed, and sit there with arms crossed until they pressure the right group.
Israel should be done with concessions. They do not work. They invite more violence and terror. So to stop terror, stop concessions.
Only after this group of 'Palis' leaders, and their ilk die out and are expelled, does anyone have a fighting chance of something like peace emerging.
Those pushing Oslo and its other evil spawn, aren't helping, and need to be permanently sidelined.
We're led to believe Israel is not done with a concession on settlements even though its clear she will receive nothing for it. I'll never understand the point of Israeli goodwill in the face of unmitigated Arab hostility.
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