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Jerry Rapp , Ph.D. is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at SUNY College of Optometry in New York.
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By Jerry Rapp
November 21, 2007
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The meeting in Annapolis later this month sponsored by the United States to try and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian impasse is unlikely to succeed and may, thereby, do more harm than no meeting at all. A prerequisite for the success of such a meeting is strong and effective leadership from the three major players involved -- Israel, the Palestinians and the United States -- and the support of their people. That is lacking in all three cases.
Starting with the Palestinians, to say their society is in disarray would be an understatement. Gaza, part of the territory that would ultimately become a significant chunk of an independent Palestinian state, is presently controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization openly dedicated to Israel?s destruction. The remaining territory, the West Bank, is under the weak leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas who oversees an inept and corrupt governmental structure.
In the summer of 2005, Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, handing the territory to the Palestinians on the proverbial silver platter. This represented the first time in history that anyone, including their supposedly concerned Arab brethren, gave the Palestinians land of their own. Instead of demonstrating that they were capable of accomplishing something positive with this gift (anything!), the Palestinians proceeded to launch hundreds of rockets into Israel proper while allowing most residents of Gaza to continue wallowing in poverty and despair. And, similar to countless past situations, while undertaking no serious and responsible initiatives of their own, they continued blaming Israel for all their woes.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is, likewise, a weak leader. After the debacle in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 -- a war with Hezbollah that, from Israel?s perspective, accomplished nothing of lasting value and, worst of all, called into question Israeli military prowess -- his approval ratings dipped into the single digits. Israelis have already been burned by a proposed peace accord that did not work. It was called Oslo. A substantial majority of the democratic Israeli populace simply does not trust Mr. Olmert to negotiate for its security.
And then there is the United States. President Bush, whose approval ratings hover at around 30%, and his advisers are desperate for a foreign policy achievement that might deflect attention from the misadventure called Iraq and, at the same time, provide a significant historical legacy. This desire has apparently overshadowed reality and resulted in fuzzy thinking concerning current prospects for an Israeli-Palestinian accord.
So, with a fragmented Palestinian leadership unable to negotiate seriously for peace (not to mention never having demonstrated beyond meaningless rhetoric even a willingness to do so), an Israeli leadership that is not trusted by its own people, and an American leadership that has no real leverage, the prospects for success are minimal. An unsuccessful endeavor now will decrease the likelihood of a future meeting occurring at a more propitious time. A failed attempt will also likely lead to yet another setback cycle of violence -- witness what happened after the failure of Oslo -- and would not be in the interests of anyone who is truly concerned about finally injecting an element of sanity into this depressing and seemingly endless dispute.
Views expressed by the author do not
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