During his meeting with the Palestinian National Authority (PNA)
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert made positive remarks on Israel-Palestinian relations, but
will these pledges lead to concrete progress in the future?
Shlomo Brom, an expert on Israel-Palestinian relations, said
during an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday that he doubted that
their meeting would bring about dramatic change between the two
sides.
"I doubt it because the two sides entered the discussions with
fundamental gap of expectations about the way to develop the
Israel-Palestinian relationship," said Brom, a senior research
associate at Israel's Institute for National Security Studies
(INSS).
Brom said what Abbas would like to see is an immediate start of
the permanent status negotiations so that the interim government
the set up in the West Bank after Hamas' forcible takeover of the
Gaza Strip in June will gain more support from the Palestinian
public, while Olmert is not interest in it.
Due to the current security situation in the West Bank, it would
bring more risks than benefits to the Jewish state if Israel agrees
to restart final status negotiations right now.
People believed that during previous meetings between the two
leaders, Olmert was only trying to persuade the Palestinians to
accept another interim arrangement, which will include the
establishment of a Palestinian state, but without discussing the
core issues, including the final border, the status of Jerusalem
and the return of Palestinian refugees.
"With the dispute between the two sides exist, I don't expect
the meeting will lead to important breakthrough, but I would assume
that some daily issues, such like the ease of restriction on the
Palestinians' movement in the West Bank, will be taken care of
during the meetings," said Brom.
On Monday, Olmert met with Abbas in the West Bank city of
Jericho, becoming the first Israeli prime minister to visit a
Palestinian territory since the outbreak of the Palestinian
Intifada (uprising) seven years ago.
Both sides have termed the meeting "constructive," but reported
no breakthrough.
During the meeting, Olmert told Abbas he hopes to launch
negotiations as soon as possible on establishing a Palestinian
state, which marks his clearest pledge yet to tackle a final peace
deal.
But some Israeli officials balked at describing the meeting as
an attempt to address the so-called final status issues, saying the
two leaders instead were expected to discuss the "fundamental
issues," which would be the basis for an independent Palestinian
statehood.
What is more, the Israeli public are also skeptical that a
two-state solution could be realized in the near future.
A recent poll conducted by a research center of Tel Aviv
University showed that 70 percent of the Israeli Jewish public
supports a peace agreement with the Palestinians based on the "two
states for two peoples" formula, but a clear majority believes that
this is not achievable in the near future.
According to the poll, which surveyed 580 people, 55 percent of
the respondents said they don't believe in the possibility of
reaching an agreement based on this formula in the near future.
However, Brom also noted that the external circumstances for
Israel and the Palestinians to reach a peace agreement have changed
a little towards the positive side in the recent period.
The Arab Peace Initiative with Israel relaunched by Arab leaders
in their summit meeting in Riyadh in March, the Egyptian and
Jordanian foreign ministers' recent ice-breaking visit to Israel,
as well as the U.S.-proposed Middle East peace summit in November
could all be considered as positive factors from the external.
But to reach the final peace, Israel and the Palestinians still
have long way to go.
(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2007)
