Middle East peace talks begin in Washington
Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has said he is looking «to find a historic compromise» that will bring peace to the Middle East for generations as he begins direct talks with the Palestinian leader, Mahmoud Abbas, in Washington today.
The two leaders met Barack Obama yesterday, when the US president launched his initiative to forge a peace agreement between the Israelis and Palestinians within a year, which he described as a «moment of opportunity that may not soon come again».
Obama said he recognised the depths of passions and mistrust and that the task would be difficult after so many failed efforts. But he said the occupation and accompanying conflict were unsustainable: «We are under no illusions. Passions run deep. Each side has legitimate and enduring interests. Years of mistrust will not disappear overnight ...
«After all, there’s a reason that the two-state solution has eluded previous generations. This is extraordinarily complex and extraordinarily difficult. But we know that the status quo is unsustainable,» he said.
Obama said it was in the national interests of all involved, including the US, that the conflict be brought to a peaceful conclusion. But he warned that Washington could not impose a solution or want it more than did the parties themselves.
In the face of widespread scepticism, Netanyahu sought to persuade the US president that he does indeed want peace. «Our goal is to forge a secure and durable peace between Israelis and Palestinians,» he said. «We don’t seek a brief interlude between two wars. We don’t seek a temporary respite between outbursts of terror. We seek a peace that will end the conflict once and for all. We seek a peace that will last for generations. We must learn to live together, to live next to one another and with one another.»
The Israeli prime minister then turned to the Palestinian leader and said: «President Abbas, you are my partner in peace.» He added: «We cannot erase the past but it is in our power to change the future.»
Abbas said the talks are a «sincere opportunity to make peace».
He continued: «It is time to put an end to the struggle in the Middle East. Let us sign a final agreement and put an end to a very long period of struggle.»
However, the talks were overshadowed by the killing of four Jewish settlers in the West Bank on Tuesday. Obama said «terrorists who want to undermine» the push for peace would not be allowed to weaken negotiations.
Netanyahu said the deaths reinforced Israel’s determination to ensure its security is at the forefront of the negotiations.
Obama held bilateral meetings with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and with the Egyptian and Jordanian leaders, before hosting a White House dinner for all four. Tony Blair, the envoy for the US, UN, EU and Russia, was also at the dinner.
Direct negotiations between the two sides begin today at the state department with the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell.
The White House initiative has been met with widepsread scepticism in Israel and the occupied territories about whether the other side is ready for peace, particularly given the rejection by hard-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet of compromises such as dismantling settlements.
But it has also drawn warnings that the talks may be the last chance to agree a two-state solution before either a new wave of violence or the continued expansion of Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied territories makes such an agreement impossible.
The talks are seen as a test of Israeli and Palestinian claims that they are ready to forge an agreement. But they are also a measure of Obama’s willingness to take the necessary political risks. The US administration has angered some of Israel’s supporters in describing the failure as a cause of continued instability in the Middle East and a threat to America’s national security.
Some involved in previous peace negotiations are concerned Obama has failed to distinguish his push from the failed efforts of the past.
«People don’t think there’s an Obama-specific approach,» said Daniel Levy, a former adviser to an earlier Israeli prime minister and an architect of the Geneva initiative peace plan. «You’re seeing a very similar approach to what we’ve seen in the past — an approach that didn’t deliver.»
Levy warned that «the script for now is still being written more by the Netanyahu government than the Obama administration»; the White House would have to be very careful not to be seen as «Israel’s lawyer», as Aaron David Miller, a former US negotiator, put it, by exerting more pressure on the Palestinians than the Israelis.
