Moscow, June 22 (RIA Novosti, Marianna Belenkaya)
- The Middle East Quartet (Russia, the EU, U.S., and the UN) will gather on Thursday in the British capital to assess prospects for Israeli-Palestinian settlement.
Specifically, it is going to review the June 21 meeting in Jerusalem between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. Many observers would agree that, sadly, the latest Israeli-Palestinian summit dampened hopes for a lasting peace in the Middle East.
Perhaps, it would be wrong to say that the Sharon-Abbas meeting produced no results whatsoever. The mere fact that it took place amid a new outburst of violence against the Israelis and that its venue was Sharon's Jerusalem residence attests to some progress in the Middle East peace process. Indeed, the two leaders seem willing to cooperate and were mindful of each other's concerns.
On the positive side, Sharon promised that a Palestinian port and airport would reopen in the Gaza Strip shortly and that more permits would be issued for Palestinians to work in Israel. He also revealed plans to hand over two more West Bank cities, Bethlehem and Qalqilya, to the Palestinian Authority. Abbas, for his part, pledged further cooperation with Israel on security.
Yet, this summit was a sad one, with its participants reluctant to comment on the outcome. It was not sad because so many of the issues on its agenda remained unsolved. More importantly, it revealed to what degree both leaders had their hands tied up by internal opposition forces. This is something of a vicious circle: to be able to resist pressure effectively from the opposition, each needs to persuade the other to make dramatic concessions, but this can hardly be achieved without solving interior political problems first. Both leaders are well aware of this. They could go on trying to establish dialogue against all the odds, but unfortunately, developments in the conflict zone remain largely beyond their control. So, the only thing for them to do at this point is to support each other by expressing mutual commiserations.
Not surprisingly, the Palestinian leader praised Sharon for going ahead with his Gaza withdrawal plan despite the staunch resistance from many of his fellow party members. Abbas also pointed out that terrorists targeted Palestinians as well as Israelis. "Every bullet and mortar fired at you is fired against me too," he said.
The Israeli Premier offered Abbas assistance in security issues, provided that Israel knows "which way you are going." But if he accepts Sharon's helping hand, Abbas will risk being accused of betraying the Palestinian cause. He is now spending too much effort on political infighting to be able to deal effectively with those trying to undermine the peace process.
Sharon, though, cannot turn a blind eye to Palestinian militancy. Israel has already announced its plans to resume the practice of targeted killings of leaders of Palestinian militant groups. These have responded with threats to step up their terrorist activity. This undermines all the positive results of both the June 21 meeting in Jerusalem and the Sharm-el-Sheikh summit in February, which brought the two leaders back to the negotiating table after a prolonged hiatus.
Both the Israelis and the Palestinians realize that the events might take the same turn they did in 2000, when they came very close to signing a peace treaty, but were not able to follow through as the Intifadah began.
How can history be prevented from repeating itself? Hopefully, the Middle East Quartet will come up with an answer.
