Tuesday, October 09, 2007

A shift towards the right course

October 9, 2007

A shift towards the right course


Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon's statement that the Israeli government would support sharing Jerusalem with the Palestinians and might also consider allowing some Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homeland indicates a shift in the Israeli position.
Given than Ramon is a close confidant of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, his comment that Israel cannot miss the opportunity presented by the upcoming US-sponsored conference to advance peace negotiations with the Palestinians should be seen as reflecting the Israeli government's thinking.
An equally signifcant part of Ramon's comment came when he said even the hawkish elements of the Israeli coalition government, like cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu Party, would go along with such an Israeli "concession."
Couple that with hawkish cabinet minister Avigdor Lieberman's affirmation that he would be ready to relinquish control of some Arab East Jerusalem areas to the Palestinians ÑÊbut not Jewish settlements in the West Bank and we can see that a new thought has emerged in Israeli thinking.
On the issue of Palestinian refugees, Ramon stated that Israel would in a "humanitarian gesture" consider permitting some Palestinian refugees to return to areas now under the control of Israel, but not agree to a large-scale return, he said.
"There is no debate in Israel that Israel will not take responsibility for the fate of the Palestinian refugees," Ramon said. "If a Palestinian refugee asks us on the basis of sympathy and grace to return we will debate this and we will not rule this out."
Ramon's comment on Jerusalem was also clear. "If we reach a deal with the Palestinians, the Arab World and the international community according to which the Jewish neighbourhoods of Jerusalem will be recognised as the capital of Israel and the Arab neighbourhoods as part of the Arab capital." This concept was what was once advocated by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Defining the Jewish and Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem could indeed pose a serious problem, particularly when it comes to some of the holiest places there and the steady Jewish encroachment into Arab areas of the Holy City since 1967. However, compromises could be and would be found if only because the Palestinians and Israelis would have put a long of things behind them and built enough confidence between them to reach a point where they are discussing the demographic and geographic features of Jerusalem with a view to working out a solution to the dispute.
Ramon's statements, if they are presented as formal proposals in actual good faith negotiations with the Palestinians, could be seen as Israel's opening gambit. They do fall short of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim demands, but they do indicate an Israeli shift towards the right course for peace in the region by recognising that the Jewish state could not hope to successfully dictate terms to the Arabs and have things its own way.