Overshadowed by the crisis in Egypt, the United States-sponsored peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have completed a second session with agreement that the negotiators should meet again.
The talks are shrouded in secrecy. We know only that they were held in Jerusalem and that both sides were “serious” about moving forward – even that information had to be dragged from a reluctant official on agreement of anonymity.
As someone whose memory stretches back to the 1967 War which set up the current situation, I am not surprised at the information blackout. Similar events have degenerated into grandstanding and name-calling and have done no good to the senior American officials who laboured to bring them into being.
For instance, I can remember Richard Nixon’s Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, fresh from what he thought was a settlement in the Vietnam War, proclaiming that the Middle East was next on his list.
Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton are other US Presidents whose names have been linked with negotiating disappointments. Barak Obama and his man at State, John Kerry, are just the latest in a long line.
So what are the chances of them succeeding when so many have failed? Less than 50-50 would be a very generous prediction. Outwardly, the signs are not good. Current Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu is hardly a peace dove and his decision to release plans for up to 3100 settler homes on occupied Palestinian territory more than offsets the gesture of releasing 26 Palestinians jailed for attacks on Israelis, with the promise of a few more to come.
As one Israeli official once told me about a previous high-profile prisoner release: “We can round them up again anytime we want to.”
If there is one positive point in the whole affair, it is the choice of Justice Minister Tziporah ‘Tzipi’ Livni as Israel’s chief negotiator.
Livni comes from an ardent nationalist background, similar to Netanyahu’s, but has been completely converted to a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine stand-off. She is high profile, having formerly served as Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister in the previous Government led by Ehud Olmert.
She is able and ambitious – should she achieve a breakthrough in these talks she could write her ticket in future Israeli governments. I believe she would not have taken the job if she thought there was no chance of an at least partially successful outcome.
Before the second round of negotiations began Livni posted on her Facebook page: “Today, I will continue the important mission I began – to achieve a peace agreement that will keep the country Jewish and democratic and provide security for Israel and all its citizens.”
It remains to be seen whether circumstances allow her to turn the rhetoric into actions.
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