In less than 3 weeks, Israeli and Palestinian leaders, amongst others, will meet in Annapolis for major regional peace conference. I doubt that this summit will be fruitful. I would love to give peace a chance, but even a left wing optimist like myself can’t ignore the dire situation. The Palestinians’ situation is terrible. I’ll concentrate on my country’s side.
People find it hard to believe our Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Too many allegations of corruption, and a deeply flawed war last summer in Lebanon don’t help him gain support in the Israeli public.
He earned points for the raid in Syria, which is widely seen as an essential and successful strike on a nuclear facility. He also won some sympathy for revealing his prostate cancer.
But this isn’t enough. His major coalition partner, the Labor party is offering a cold shoulder. The party’s leader and minister of defense, Ehud Barak, has a painful memory from pushing towards a peace conference. In the summer of 2000, when he headed the country, he pushed for the Camp David summit with Arafat and Clinton. Two months after the summit’s failure, the Intifada broke out. 6 months later, Barak was out of office.
The Israeli public still holds him accountable despite offering “everything”, a deal wasn’t struck. Not only that a historical end to the conflict (as Barak phrased it) was never signed, a bloody strife began.
So, now Barak is very careful. Well, planning a raid on Gaza for the day after the conference couldn’t be called being careful. Barak is being more “right winged” than Olmert.
Those are the politics. Without wide public support, Olmert can’t go far.
And what happens on the ground? Contrary to promises to the American administration, illegal outposts aren’t evacuated in the West Bank. The outposts are provided with electricity and water, making them harder to evacuate in the future.
Except the settlers, hardly any Israeli visit the occupied territories. Yet the government always saw them as part of the country. Here’s some evidence:
The road sign points to Ariel, the biggest settlement in the West Bank, located in the heart of the Samaria mountains. Ariel is a small town that no sane person goes to. Still, it receives special attention. Yes, also road signs are political decisions.
So, with the settlements still thriving, the vision of a Palestinian state and long lasting peace seems far.
