Monday, December 03, 2007

Constants in peacemaking

Dec.2, 2007

Constants in peacemaking



US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to be seeking extensive advice from former US presidents and diplomats on how to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avoiding pitfalls similar to those that had snagged earlier efforts.
Among those consulted are ex-presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former secretaries of state James Baker III, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger and other diplomats. Rice is also said to reading stacks of books and negotiating documents.
We do not really know how far Rice has advanced into understanding the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict and whether her understanding is based on an objective study of history and recognition of the Palestinians as a people who are denied all their universal rights and international justice. It is also possible that Rice is moving ahead with a simple acceptance that Israel's interests have to served regardless of what the Palestinians get in any peace agreement.
Whatever the case, there are certain realities of the Israeli-Palestinian problem and the broader Arab-Israeli conflict that Rice should not attempt to sidestep if she is seeking ways to work out genuine peace based on fairness and justice for all.
Rice should recognise that the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating process is lopsided under the present givens. Being the occupation power in physical control of the Palestinian territories, Israel is behaving as if the Palestinians should be thankful in the first place that the Israelis are willing to talk peace with them, albeit at its own terms. The almost unlimited support that Israel receives from the US on the diplomatic, political, and military fronts makes the equation all the more loaded against the Palestinians.
As such, Rice should be seeking to correct the imbalance by ensuring that international legitimacy — as enshrined in UN resolutions — and not Israel's self-professed claims backed by military might should be the basis for negotiations. It is as simple as that because international legitimacy is indeed the very basis for the Palestinians' right to independent statehood.
Another must for Rice's success is the recognition that little advance could be made on the Israeli-Palestinian track on its own without a parallel process under way to address the Israeli-Syrian and Israeli-Lebanese conflicts, again on the basis of international legitimacy.
Anything less than an unreserved acceptance of these facts as constants in any peacemaking would only abort every effort, no matter how intense, sincere and well-intented.