Another Israel's false assumption and empty gesture

Posted By George S. Hishmeh

Ehud Olmert was indeed posturing when he stood last week next to visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel inviting Arab leaders, including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, to join him in talks at a regional peace meeting in Occupied Jerusalem.

It is doubtful that his empty gesture was taken seriously by the visiting German leader, the current president of the European Union, which had just announced that it would maintain contacts with moderate members of the Palestinian government who are not members of Hamas, contrary to Israel's hopes that countries would boycott the new Palestinian government.

Olmert must know better that no Arab leader would consider accepting such an empty gesture. Although his spokeswoman described it exaggeratedly as a "new initiative", it is unlikely that any Arab leader would respond positively to such an off-hand invitation, particularly since it did not include a serious counteroffer that matched the one adopted at the Arab summit conference a few days earlier. Even the late Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, who was assassinated for making that trip, is believed to have received prior assurances in secret meetings in Morocco with then Israeli defence minister Moshe Dayan that the late Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin, was prepared to give back all of the Sinai Peninsula.

There was no doubt that Olmert's intention here was a bid to help shore up his sagging popularity in Israel where just 2 per cent say they trust the prime minister and more than two-thirds want him to resign.

His shenanigans are more blatant when it is realised that his invitation came only a couple of days after telling the Israeli press that Israel would not allow a single Palestinian to return to his or her homeland, now Israel, and that Israel bore no responsibility for the plight of the Palestinian refugees.

In short, the tables have turned. Israel is now the bearer of the "three nos" slogan - no to accepting the Palestinians' internationally sanctioned "right of return"; no evacuation from the occupied territories to the 1967 armistice lines; and no pullback from the occupied Holy City. This contrasts sharply with the Arab peace initiative, which was reiterated by the 22-member League of Arab states last week at their summit meeting in Riyadh, thus abandoning their own infamous "three nos" - "no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own [usurped] country."

Olmert's proposal did not receive overwhelming support in Israel either. One member of the Knesset has labelled the prime minister's offer as "delusional" and the liberal Peace Now group described it as "cheap populism". But of course, the Israeli prime minister is counting on the backing of the Bush administration despite what the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be doing during her monthly trips to the region.

In a letter delivered to Ariel Sharon, the former Israeli prime minister, in April 2004, US President George W. Bush committed himself to the "establishment of a Palestinian state and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel". He also stated: "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centres, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949."

That's why Olmert feels secure and confident that regardless of what the Arabs may offer him he can easily shift the focus of the discussion because he has the backing of the world's remaining superpower.

He did it again when he received this week Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the third in line to the US presidency, when he asked her on Sunday to take a message to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad saying Israel would be interested in making peace if Syria stopped supporting terrorist groups. Again Olmert sidetracks Syria's demand that Israel agree to withdraw to the June 4, 1967 lines.

Regrettably, none of Olmert's recent visitors, Rice, Merkel, Pelosi and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have bothered to tell Olmert that he is barking up the wrong tree and it is time that he come up with something more concrete. Otherwise, Israel is now the holder of the banner with the Three Nos.

* An Arab American columnist based in Washington.