Wednesday, November 21, 2007

PA preconditions?

On Monday, the PA Cabinet announced 4 pre-conditions for its attendance at the Annapolis meeting, that is due to be held next week. The papers said that this was a "surprise" since these preconditions had not been mentioned before during many discussions. It reminds me of a story, of representatives of an American company arriving in Tokyo for a 3 day visit to negotiate a deal with their Japanese hosts. On the first day there were lavish dinners and toasts, and everyone drank too much. On the second day the Americans arrived at the Japanese Company offices ready for business, only to be told that they were scheduled to go on a tour. On the last day the Americans were desperate, and on the way to the airport they begged the Japanese to take care of business, whereupon the Japanese brought out an agreement, and said, "just sign here."
The Palestinians say that they will not attend unless: 1. Israel stops all settlement construction, 2. Israel dismantles all settlement outposts, 3. Israel removes all IDF checkpoints, and 4. Israel allows the reopening of PA offices in Jerusalem. Now, this is pure chutzpah, since these are items for future negotiations after the Annapolis conference, but also note that the Palestinian's favorite precondition, namely the freeing of prisoners from Israeli jails, is absent! Why? Because Olmert has already announced that he will free 441 Fatah prisoners who do not have Israeli blood on their hands. These so-called preconditions are designed to put pressure on Condy Rice to pressure the Israelis to at least give in to some of the Palestinian demands in order to help bolster Abbas. She should dismiss them out-of-hand, but this is always the way so-called Middle East peace negotiations take place.
So now we know the Palestinians pre-conditions, but what are the Israeli demands: recognition of Israel as a Jewish State (forget it), Jerusalem to remain unified (impossible), no "right of return" for so-called Palestinian refugees (no way), compensation for Jews from Arab lands (who?), etc. The fact is that Israel never does this kind of pressure diplomacy, we are always on the receiving end of outrageous demands, that the Palestinians use effectively in their PR, while they still allow terrorists to attack Israelis.
On Monday night Ido Zoldan, 28, an evacuee from Homesh in Gaza, was shot dead by terrorists in Shomron while driving home. He leaves a wife and child. There is nothing that Israel or the IDF apparently can or will do about this. Before Annapolis their hands are tied. However, 4 Palestinians were killed in two separate incidents when they tried to breach Israeli security. Even though the PA make these preconditions they have not even started their first requirement of the Road Map, that is a cessation of terrorism.
The Palestinians also made their attendance at Annapolis conditional on the presence of other Arab States. However, these may only be represented by their Foreign Ministers. After his meeting yesterday at Sharm el Sheikh, at which Olmert begged Mubarak to attend, at least some Egyptian attendance seems assured. Even though the official invitations were sent out, noone still knows whether or not the Saudis and/or the Syrians will be there. And noone knows if the Palestinians will stick to their "preconditions"!

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