Israel Matzav

Arab League okays 'proximity talks'

The Arab League foreign ministers met on Wednesday in Cairo and endorsed 'proximity talks' - indirect talks between Israel and the 'Palestinians' to be mediated by the United States. The League rejected the notion of direct talks unless and until Israel implements a 'full settlement freeze,' which would include Jerusalem. Don't hold your breaths waiting for that to happen.

One foreign minister opposed the decision: Syria's Walid Moallem.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem interrupted Moussa while he was reading the statement, insisting that the decision on whether to join indirect talks or not was up to the Palestinians. "The Palestinians are better positioned to know what to do," he said.

Moallem is correct. The 'Palestinians' are better positioned. The fact that Abu Mazen needs the cover of the Arab League to even open talks shows how weak his position is. It also means that Abu Mazen cannot make any concessions. Since Prime Minister Netanyahu is not Ehud Olmert and is not going to be a gift that keeps on giving (even if he would give too much in my book), Abu Mazen's weakness ensures that these talks will end in failure. They are all for show.

By comparison, Yasser Arafat never sought Arab League approval for what he did vis a vis Israel. He sought (and did not receive) Egypt's and Saudi Arabia's approval for the minimal concessions he sought to make on the Temple Mount in 2000, but that was the sum total of it.

Abu Mazen's weakness derives from several sources. The most obvious one is the split with Hamas. The second source is that he has now been President for more than a year past the point that he was supposed to stand for re-election. The third source is that he is not Yasser Arafat and does not enjoy the 'Palestinians' confidence the way that Arafat did.

All of these factors make it all but certain that these talks will fail. The fact that they are not direct talks is just the icing on the cake. The real question here is why the Obama administration insists on continuing to waste American political capital on this game. I have no rational answer to that question.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:44 AM