Israel Matzav: Netanyahu and Abu Mazen have a 'channel of communications'

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Netanyahu and Abu Mazen have a 'channel of communications'

Haaretz reports that even though they're not really talking, Prime Minister Netanyahu and 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President ~~Mahmoud Abbas~~ Abu Mazen have a 'channel of communications' open.

It is Molho and Erekat who are maintaining the line of communication between Jerusalem and Ramallah. Senior officials in Jerusalem and Western diplomats said that the two have met six or seven times in the past two months.

The talks between Erekat and Molho in recent months can't be characterized as peace talks. The Palestinians' preconditions for entering into negotiations have remained as they were – talks on the basis of the 1967 ceasefire lines and the freezing of construction in West Bank settlements. Netanyahu's announcement of the construction of 851 new housing units in the settlements is a sign that peace talks aren't expected to start anytime soon.

The line of communications between Netanyahu and Abbas has to do more with the mundane day-to-day problems between the two sides that need to be addressed at the highest levels. Erekat and Molho held four or five meetings concerning the exchange of communiqués between Netanyahu and Abbas during April and May. These meetings dealt mostly with coordinating the phrasing of the communiqués and several requests on the part of the Palestinians for gestures of good will by the Israelis.

Since Molho arrived at Ramallah on May 11 and delivered Netanyahu's communiqué to Abbas, he has had another two meetings with Erekat on the subject of the Palestinian prisoners' hunger strike, a Palestinian request for a permit to bring weapons and ammunition in from Jordan to supply the Palestinian Authority's security forces, and other issues.

In the last three weeks no meetings were held, after Erekat suffered two heart attacks and went on a prolonged vacation from which he will return on Sunday. "It's true we've been meeting regularly in the past few months as well as talking on the phone, but one shouldn't read too much into this," Erekat said Saturday. "We will continue meeting ant talking if need be, but the conditions for renewing the negotiations remain as they were."

Molho brought up the possibility of a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas several times during his meetings with Erekat, even if these aren't characterized as renewed peace talks. The Palestinians didn't agree to this, but Abbas expressed some more openness to the idea over the weekend.

"For us to return to the negotiation table the construction in the settlements must be stopped," Abbas said in Paris on Friday. "But if Netanyahu agrees to free prisoners and allow our police force to receive a shipment of weapons, then we will sit down and talk, though this will not be peace talks. This is what he [Netanyahu] offered."

Of course, for the last three years, we didn't even have these communications. What could go wrong?

Labels: Abu Mazen, Binyamin Netanyahu, direct talks, Saeb Erekat, Yitzchak Molho