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Negotiations and the Limited Options

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Category: The Regional Meeting on the Middle East

Published: Friday, 22 June 2018 10:50

Written by Super User

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The historic conflict with Israel has entered, with the start of direct negotiations, to the stage of the limited options.

Option per item

Perhaps a lot of Palestinians and Arabs support negotiations and direct negotiations at a time many would consider them a way to escape from their obligations to the people and the Palestinian cause.
It took from us a long period that lasted nearly 18 years starting from negotiations of Madrid Conference for peace, following by the Washington negotiations, and the negotiations on the Implementation of the Oslo Accords and Camp David in order to discover the extent of the Israeli procrastination, which was received U.S sympathy. As for the current negotiations, which we are today in question since September 2, 2010, they put the Palestinians in the framework of the one option after the options were many, various, and even open to conflict with the state of the Israeli occupation. We can now describe the agreements reached to as the following:

1 – Oslo Accords did not achieve the establishment of the Palestinian state, but created a torn entity based on a political project, which disrupted the establishment of the Palestinian state and created a state of division within the Palestinian community.

2 - The agreements signed between the Palestinians and Israelis have remarkably changed the Palestinian political system that led to the creation of a Palestinian Authority based on the local administration that though manages its own affairs, but relates to limited agreements under the cover the PLO the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

3 - The option of the negotiations was not acceptable being the only way to restore the rights of the Palestinian people under the evading of Israel from the obligations of the agreements signed with the Palestinians, and the option of armed resistance needs to balance the forces in favor of the Palestinians.

4 - The peace process dedicated the subordination of the Palestinian Authority to the Israelis in the fields of economic and security.

5 - The agreements signed between the two sides led to restrain the Palestinian economy that made it subject to the fluctuations and changes in the interest of the Israelis at the expense of the Palestinian economy.

Obama's speech at the University of Cairo in June 4, 2009 was an encouraging sign for some sectors of the Arab and Palestinian, while at the same time other sectors were skeptical of the will of President Obama and the effectiveness of his new administration. This is due to the strength and organization of the Zionist lobby in America.

The evidence of the first trend that advocates the American policy was associated with seeking a peaceful settlement between the Palestinians and the Israelis (as it related to the higher interests and the national security of the United States of America) as expressed by the leaders of the current U.S. administration, who found that the mechanism for that was to reach a solution based on the two-state (State of Palestine - State Israel), while the other trend revisionists of the current American politics saw that the strength of the Zionist lobby supporting for the current Israeli government would be emptied the content of the above-mentioned content.

This fall depends on the course of the current peace process that will be either the fall of peace or the fall of political and diplomatic confrontation against Israel in the yard of the United Nations and UN Security Council.

Arab trend has emerged supporting the position of President Obama, who insists on the continuation of freezing settlement and stopping it in the future in order to establish a Palestinian state on land occupied in 67, also he insists that Jerusalem is one of the permanent status issues on the list of the final negotiations and an agreed solution should be found between the two sides. Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt said, in a speech at the opening of peace negotiations in Washington on 2 / 9, that Jerusalem is the capital of both Israelis and Palestinians. On the second day Barak, the Israeli Defense Minister, spoke more broadly saying that as a quarter of a million Palestinians are living in Jerusalem neighborhoods, it is considered the capital of the Palestinian State, while the aim of the annexation of the settlements in the vicinity of East Jerusalem to West Jerusalem (with the exchange of land equal in number and value) is to be the capital of the Israeli state, then he stated that there must be a special regime of holy places.

In this context, the use of Israel of the Iranian nuclear issue as a pretext for not fulfilling the obligations of peace must be aborted.

As for the Arab position that has emerged in the Arab Summit held in Libya in March 2010 in city of Sirte, it proposed convening another summit in the fall to assess Israel's behavior during the months in which direct negotiations was held. Leaders at the summit agreed that if it happened that Israel breached the fulfillment of the benefits of peace There would be an Arab positive direction with the behavior of Israel.

Through this conference, and all the relevant Arab conferences, leadership of the PLO and its Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Abu Mazen were careful not to act only under the cover of the Arab side and its recommendations (either follow-up committee or the Arab Peace Initiative committee) at the level of Foreign Ministers.

Another Arab trend has appeared confirming that in case Israel continued to be obstinate adhering to the policy of imposing de facto, Arab leaders will go to the UN Security Council to declare an independent Palestinian state affirmed by the UN Security Council Resolution 1515, dated 9/11/2003, which emphasized the Council's vision of coexistence of the two states (Israel and Palestine) side by side within secure and recognized borders.

And finally:

The claim of the current government headed by Netanyahu that the solution is to keep the situation as it is in the Palestinian territories (security, economy) is like a time bomb that could explode at any time.

The above-mentioned analysis containing the limited options confirms its weakness and strength to the Palestinian side if the split continues, therefore, the salvation of this split is the responsibility of Hamas movement as follows:

1 - To sign an Egyptian reconciliation paper signed by the Fatah movement in the framework of broad Palestinian sectors supporting it.

2 - To respect the agreements signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization as an introduction to the following:

A - Understanding the structural adjustment of the Palestine Liberation Organization as was decided in Egypt.

B - Hamas's participation in the senior leadership in the PLO and its choice to engage in peace negotiations would strengthen the Palestinian negotiator in the quest to establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, in addition to resolving the refugee problem in accordance with Resolution 194 and this was confirmed by Hamas in all its previous statements.

C - To support the Arab peace initiative, especially after the decision became a collective Arab decision aimed at the official Arab struggle to secure the withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, as well as the withdrawal from the Syrian Arab Golan to the limits of 67 and the rest of the Lebanese Shebaa Farms. In return of this comprehensive withdrawal, Arab is committed to normalize relations with Israel and we believe that this Arab initiative must take its range of research and support in the framework of civil society organizations, rather than confining it only to the official Arab support, especially that the positive signals for the initiative started to appear in various international arenas.

Ambassador Said Kamal
The representative of Palestine
in Afro-Asian People's Solidarity the Organization