Jordan Times
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Politicians, opinion leaders
call for new options in peace process
By Hani Hazaimeh
AMMAN - Politicians and pundits have called on the UN Security Council to issue
a decision imposing a two-state solution, which they said enjoys an
“unprecedented” international consensus, on Arabs and Israelis.
During a seminar at Al Rai Centre for Strategic Studies on Saturday, former
prime minister Marouf Bakhit briefed participants on a number of possible
solutions to the Middle East conflict, highlighting various options Arabs can
adopt to ensure a lasting peace.
“If Israel continues to refuse to engage in direct talks with the Palestinians,
the Security Council should make the Israeli government submit to international
consensus by issuing a resolution outlining the parameters of the final solution
to the Palestinian issue,” Bakhit said in a lecture titled, “The Peace Process:
Resumption and Final Resolution”.
Community leaders, former ministers and MPs, as well as university professors,
discussed prospects for peace in the region at the event.
Bakhit, one of the negotiators who engineered the Wadi Araba Peace Treaty
between Jordan and Israel in 1994, warned that the current right-wing Israeli
government might resort to action to divert the international community’s
attention from the peace process and ease the political pressure being placed on
Israel by the US and other regional players to engage in talks with the
Palestinians.
The approach of dealing with crises as they arise has “proved a failure”, Bakhit
said, pointing out that the US is taking a new course in solving the conflict
based on setting concrete objectives.
“The policies and mechanisms adopted by the superpowers to solve the Palestinian
issue were proven a failure due to the fact that they were formulated based on
an approach that lacked a clear intellectual aspect and had no clear goals or
strategies for its implementation. This approach only delayed problems instead
of solving them or addressing the root cause,” he said.
Bakhit warned that without a comprehensive peace that fulfils the needs and
rights of all parties, the conflict will continue to escalate and more violence
will threaten the interests of the region and the international community as a
whole.
Moreover, he noted that Arabs have failed to adopt a unified stance and take
decisive decisions, adding that Arab states should no longer hold talks with US
administrations based on their individual interests.
Since its establishment, Israel has adopted a policy of “divide and conquer” in
dealing with the Arab states, Bakhit said, claiming that Arab unity is Israel’s
“ultimate fear”.
He noted that after the 1973 war, the US started dealing with the crisis on the
basis of “incremental peace”, starting with Egypt’s peace agreement with Israel
in 1979, which was met with complete rejection by Arab communities and weakened
the Arab position.
“The incremental peace approach was disastrous and pushed all parties farther
apart because it only gave Israel more time to implement its policy of
constructing more settlements in the occupied Palestinians territories,” the
former premier stressed.
According to Bakhit, Israel’s main fear is not the establishment of a
Palestinian state, but the nuclear proliferation of Iran.
“They work hard these days to direct the world’s attention to the Iranian
nuclear file. Based on this view, it is not the Arabs who can secure Israel’s
safety,” he said
However, Bakhit stressed that the answer for Israel is the Arab Peace
Initiative, which offers full and normal ties with 57 Arab and Muslim countries
for the return of lands it occupied in 1967 as well as finding a just solution
to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
“Israel must give up its myth of a ‘Greater Israel’ and the Palestinians must
give up their dream of a ‘Greater Palestine’ that defines its borders from the
river to the sea,” he added.
The Palestinian issue has been based on an Arab position that has failed at the
political and military levels since 1967, according to Nasouh Majali, former
minister of information, who said the Arabs were mistaken in relying on the US
to uphold their legitimate rights.
“American policy was never in favour of Arab interests with regards to their
conflict with the Israelis,” he said, adding that “disappointing” Palestinian
divisions have complicated matters even further.
Columnist Feisal Gharaybeh echoed Majali’s sentiments, saying that Arabs should
place more pressure on various Palestinian factions to unify their ranks and
strengthen their position. He warned that as long as the Palestinians remain
divided, Israel will continue to convince the world that they “lack a
negotiating partner on the other side of the table”.
Seminar participants also highlighted the important role of emerging regional
powers, namely Turkey and Iran, stressing that it is in the Arabs’ interest to
strengthen ties with Ankara, which enjoys excellent economic and political ties
with all Arab states.