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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer and Convenor of: Jordan is Palestine International - an organisation calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine.
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By David Singer
November 10, 2007
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A couple days ago there was a report that the Gaza Strip's isolated and cash-strapped Hamas rulers plan to build a $US 200 million media city and movie production facility intended to be part tourist attraction and part a bid to cement control of the media. It looks like Hamastan Hollywood (or is it Disneyland? -- they already have the mouse) is just part of a trend. Fantasy, too, is rapidly overtaking reality and threatening to turn President George Bush's upcoming international extravaganza in Annapolis into a farce, if the following statements are any guide:
1. The Palestinian Authority - wanted the preface to the joint statement at Annapolis to say that a final-status arrangement would be completed within six months of the signing of agreements at the summit. (Haaretz 8 November). One day later the time frame had blown out to January 2009.
Considering the last 14 years have failed to conceive anything, is this hastily revised gestation period being propagated and induced by the use of artificial dissemination?
2. GAZA, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- An aide of deposed Prime Minister Ismail Haneya, Ahmed Yousef told reporters in Gaza that if the Hamas movement was invited to join the Annapolis conference, "it would think about joining and it can detour around its constitution."
A detour around Hamas' constitution seems as likely to succeed as tiptoeing through the yawning potholes in the Road Map caused by exploding mortars and Kassam rockets. Poor Ahmed - will we ever hear any more pearls of wisdom from him again? Looks like he could also be deposed.
3. President Shimon Peres -"Annapolis is a tremendous opportunity, it won't be an instantaneous solution to everything, but I have spoken to the Arab leaders and there is a spirit of trust and optimism there," (YnetNews 6 November )
Shucks, Shimon -- everything you say seems to get turned on its head - remember the wonderful Common Market that would be created in the New Middle East? And the promise that Israel would take back the guns given to the Palestinian Authority if they were ever turned on Israel? Are the Arab leaders you spoke to -- those who don't seek instantaneous solutions -- the ones who prefer wiping Israel off the map in stages?
4 Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni - "The Arab world must support any decision or compromise reached by the Palestinians," Livni told European and Middle Eastern foreign ministers gathered in the Portuguese capital, "instead of dictating the final outcome of the conference." {Haaretz, 6 November)
Sure Tzipi - the 22 member Arab League will roll over just like everyone's pet poodle. Saudi Arabia is sure to be miffed at this infidel Jewish female upstart daring to tell them how to behave. Don't be surprised if the Saudis don't come to Annapolis after this gratuitous insult.
5. Rafiq Husseini, a top aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was pleased that there is now talk of reviving the "road map" ? a long-stalled U.S. peace plan that envisions a Palestinian state.(International Herald Tribune, 8 November)
Rafiq - is this Road Map the one with or without Israel's 14 reservations and President Bush's three pledges to Israel about final borders, the right of return and allowing Jews to continue living in the West Bank? Will it be revived by artificial resuscitation or creative emasculation?
6. Ziad Abu Zayyad, a former Palestinian Authority government minister and negotiator argued that the Israeli "occupation" is the real terrorist infrastructure - that once Israel withdraws from the West Bank, the Palestinians would consider the terrorist infrastructure dismantled. (CNS News, 8 November)
Really - just as they have refused to do in Gaza? Zigzag your way out of that no-brainer Ziad Zayyad. No wonder he is now a former negotiator and out of a job.
7. Two separate polls of Israelis and Palestinians released on Thursday showed that 25 percent of Israeli Jews believe the Annapolis summit will "succeed," while 55 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip said they thought the Annapolis conference would succeed in achieving peace. Dr. Nabil Kukali, founder and president of the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey, said he believed the Palestinian poll results were too optimistic. (CNS News, 8 November)
Kukali might not be conducting too many more polls if he questions the validity of his own survey results. How many Gaza residents did Kukali interview and shouldn't he burn that evidence before Hamas gets it? Kukali and crap sound as though they could be synonymous.
8. The Palestinian chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, has reportedly told the international press that he will wait until after the summit to begin pleading the case for an independent Palestinian state (International Middle East Media Centre, 8 November).
That will considerably shorten the proceedings allowing the non Moslem participants the certainty of being home for Christmas or Channukah. Thanks Saeb for your understanding. It must be very comforting for the Palestinians to know that a Palestinian State will be the last thing on their chief negotiator's mind in Annapolis.
9. Ehud Olmert - voiced hope that Syria will attend the Israeli-Palestinian peace conference in Annapolis, .(Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 November)
Israel is lucky to have a Prime Minister prepared to publicly risk rejection and loss of face pursuing outcomes that everyone else believes are impossible to achieve.
10. Imad Mustafa, Syria's ambassador to Washington - "We don't want to come (to Annapolis) and waste our time" (United Press International, 6 November)
Oops sorry Ehud. Maybe your judgement was just a little off the mark - again. A bit like your brilliant plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza and your disastrous foray into Lebanon. Don't worry. Everyone makes mistakes. You are still considered the most corrupt politician in Israel. No one gets that far without brains.
11. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki - Playing down the conference, set for late this month in Annapolis, Mr. Malki said, "We should not spend that much effort on Annapolis itself, but on the day after Annapolis." (Associated Press 9 November)
Brilliant Riad. You have given President Bush and Condoleezza Rice the perfect out to downgrade the conference. Maybe they will give you some more money and guns to show their appreciation. Ehud will release more prisoners, terrorists will be targeted, everyone will talk about windows of opportunity and things will get back to normal again the day after -- just like the last 130 years.
12. "Annapolis is nothing but a journey to la-la land" writes Yoel Marcus in Haaretz (Nov. 9). How right he is.
Appropriate though, that the talks will take place at the home of the U.S. Naval Academy. It looks like everyone's going to be contemplating their own navels.
Views expressed by the author do not
necessarily reflect those of israelinsider.
 
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