Peace talks start formally in Washington on Thursday — today and tonight are the preparatory meetings, and yesterday there were preparatory meetings for today’s preparatory meetings (hey, this is Washington. And the Middle East.)
Nothing formal’s been stated, but that doesn’t mean folks can’t opine, and opining they are.
At the New York Times, Tom Friedman reminds us that he’s seen this movie before, and in a way that makes it seem like he’s caught in a hellish Netflix loop — but maybe there’s reason for hope:
Yet, if by some miracles the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that open in Washington on Thursday do eventually produce a two-state solution, and Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis do succeed in writing their own social contract on how to live together, one might be able to imagine a Middle East that breaks free from the debilitating grip of endless Arab-Israeli wars and autocratic Arab regimes.
President Obama deserves credit for helping to nurture these opportunities. But he, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, and the newly elected leaders of Iraq need to now raise their games to a whole new level to seize this moment — or their opponents will.
On the same page, Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s president, also tells us he’s seen it all before, but makes his case for joining the talks (although he is reportedly ailing):
Now, after a nearly two-year hiatus in direct negotiations, we are opening yet another chapter in this long history. Many claim that this new round of talks — which begins with meetings between President Obama; Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel; the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas; King Abdullah of Jordan; and myself here on Wednesday — is doomed to fail like all the others.
However, President Obama’s determined involvement has revived our hopes for peace and we must seize this opportunity. The broad parameters of a permanent Palestinian-Israeli settlement are already clear: the creation of a Palestinian state in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 with Jerusalem as a capital for both Israel and Palestine. Previous negotiations have already resolved many of the details on the final status of refugees, borders, Jerusalem and security.
At the Washington Post, David Ignatius wonders and worries about whether the sides are prepared:
What’s the first item on the agenda for the long-awaited, face-to-face peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians that begin Thursday at the State Department? It’s just getting the parties to agree to a second meeting in several weeks.
And even achieving that modest goal is not a given: First, the two sides have to find their way past what one negotiator calls the “barrier reef” of Sept. 26. That’s the expiration date of Israel’s moratorium on building new settlements. If that issue can’t be resolved quickly, then this latest peace process is likely to collapse soon after it starts.
At Bloomberg, Yossi Beilin has seen this movie before (as an architect of the original Oslo talks) and says it ends badly. He counsels aiming lower:
If there were even the slightest chance of the talks succeeding, I would say it was worth making one more attempt. However, in this situation, there is almost no such chance, whereas the grave implications of failure are both clear and painful. I call upon the U.S. administration to hurry up and change the goal of the talks. They should deal with what the parties are prepared to implement, and not with what they are forced to do as a result of American pressure: open negotiations on a partial and temporary agreement.
It’s not an Op-Ed, but this NYT lede on Tuesday night’s murder of four Israelis — including a pregnant woman — near Hebron conveys, fairly strongly, a notion of whom is to blame (is it the writer’s, the desk’s?):
JERUSALEM — The killing of four Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, in the West Bank on Tuesday evening rattled Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the eve of peace talks in Washington and underscored the disruptive role that the issue of Jewish settlements could play in the already fragile negotiations.
"The disruptive role that the issue of settlements…"? What about the disruptive role of, you know, murder?
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