The Devil is in The Details

from the November 27, 2007 eNews issue

The much-anticipated Annapolis Peace Conference began today at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. It is the first such conference to take place in seven years, since the Bush administration took office. The Annapolis conference is meant to be a starting point for future negotiations. In his opening remarks, President Bush read a "joint statement" which expressed the desire of both sides to put an end to the bloodshed. Both sides have also pledged to continue peace negotiations in accordance with the Road Map Peace Plan with the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of 2008.

The Israeli-Palestinian "joint statement" has already been meet with a great deal of skepticism and criticism. Many experts doubt this latest effort will succeed where others have failed so many times before. The reason is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not as straightforward as some may think. There are no easy answers or simple explanations. The deeper you dig, the more complicated it becomes.

The most difficult part of the peace process is not the establishment of a Palestinian state, but the terms on which it is established. Palestinians have demanded the complete withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied areas back to the 1967 border, the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza that are home to more than 250,000 Jews, a Palestinian capitol in east Jerusalem, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to Israel, the removal of Israeli roadblocks, the release of some 8,000 Palestinians being detained in Israeli jails and military prisons, and the dismantling of the controversial barrier wall.

The right of return for the refugees is a particular source of friction between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians argue that according to a 1948 UN General Assembly resolution, they have a right to live in what is now Israel. Those who left during the 1948-49 war and their descendants now number roughly 4 million, and Israel argues that it can in no way accept such a potentially huge influx of Palestinians. Israel says the refugees belong in the Palestinian territories, not in the state of Israel. The controversy has caused a multitude of problems. Rather than being integrated into the general populations of the countries where they fled, the majority of refugees have remained in refugee camps under deplorable conditions. The Arab states do not want the refugees and, with the exception of Jordan, they are unwilling to give them citizenship. If the refugees were allowed to return to Israel, the Palestinian population would quickly outnumber the Jewish population. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser - a key player in the Six Day War who openly advocated the destruction of Israel - told an interviewer on September 1, 1961: "If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist."

Even if the Palestinians are successful in obtaining their own state there are no guarantees that the violence will end. A poll conducted by Public Opinion Research of Israel and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion reported that over 60 percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem and a Palestinian state is created.

For most Westerners it is difficult to understand why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued for so long or why it has resulted in so much violence. The fundamental problem is that the Palestinian leadership has ardently resisted making any concessions toward Israel and have maintained an all-or-nothing approach to peace negotiations. Too few Palestinians truly desire peace. Palestinian children are consistently taught in school to hate Israel. Most Arab nations have yet to officially recognize the right of Israel to exist, and many Muslim groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah, will not allow peace unless it comes in the form of Israel's destruction.