Palestinians `need decisions'

Despite U.S. support for two-state solution, an independent state seems no closer than in 1991
Mar 05, 2009 04:30 AM
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Oakland Ross
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM–U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton travelled to the West Bank yesterday with a message of renewed American support for a two-state solution to the long-running conflict between Palestinians and Israelis.

But Palestinians have heard those words before, and the prospect of an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza seems no closer now than it did nearly two decades ago, when an international conference in Madrid lay the groundwork for the establishment of a country called Palestine that would dwell in peace alongside Israel.

That was in November 1991.

Since then, hundreds of negotiators have bargained their way through dozens of round-the-clock peace talks – and many thousands of innocent people have perished in political violence – but still there is no Palestinian state.

Perhaps understandably, a sense of hopelessness has taken hold, at least in some quarters.

"Many Palestinians have despaired of the two-state solution," said George Giacaman, director of the Program on Democracy and Human Rights at Birzeit University in the West Bank.

That bleak mood is just one of many impediments blocking the way to peace in the Middle East. Others include the political fallout from Israel's deadly military offensive in Hamas-ruled Gaza earlier this year and the continued firing of Palestinian rockets at Israel.

There is also the bitter split that now separates the militant Islamists of Hamas from their former comrades in the ranks of Fatah, the more moderate Palestinian faction that holds uncertain sway in the West Bank.

It does not exactly simplify matters that Clinton's one-day visit to the West Bank came on the heels of a decision by Israeli authorities to demolish more than 80 Palestinian dwellings in East Jerusalem, a decision Clinton criticized yesterday

"Clearly, this kind of activity is unhelpful," she said.

Clinton vowed to take the issue up with Israel's prime-minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu once he manages to piece together a ruling coalition, a task he is expected to do within the next few weeks.

Not exactly a proponent of political dialogue with Palestinians, Netanyahu may find himself at the helm of a hard-line right-wing government that would be even more adverse to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state than he is himself.

Meanwhile, some Palestinians look back at the past two decades of failed peace talks with Israel and ask themselves whether there has ever really been genuine Israeli support for a two-state solution to the region's troubles.

"I really think Israel is not serious at all on the issue of peace negotiations," Nader Said-Foqahaa, a prominent Palestinian pollster, said yesterday.

"There has been a lot of talk about `final settlements,' and there have been so many creative solutions, but I don't think there is a real desire on Israel's part to implement them,'' he said. ``I don't think Israelis really care."

Nearly a year ago, Saeb Erekat, a senior adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told a gathering of journalists in East Jerusalem that, in his view, there was no longer anything that needed to be talked about between the two sides.

After decades of exhaustive negotiations, he said, every major issue in the conflict – the fate of Palestinian refugees, the location of borders, the future of Jerusalem, the provision of Israeli security – had all been examined in microscopic detail.

"We need decisions," he said. "We don't need negotiations."

But, once again, the decisions were left unmade.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/596866