Both sides should exert efforts for peace in the Mideast to succeed

by Musa Keilani

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is obviously armed with a sense of determination and purpose as he deals with the security situation in the occupied territories and seeks to prevent armed attacks by groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

He has served notice on his people that he would not tolerate - nor could he afford to overlook - any lapses in the effort to prevent the armed groups from continuing attacks against Israel. Indeed, the success of the revived effort for negotiations with Israel rests on his ability to prevent armed attacks following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Sharm El Sheikh last week.

Since then, Abbas has told his people that armed attacks are unlikely to advance their interests, and Sharon seems to have accepted Abbas as a legitimate negotiating partner.

Abbas has fired several security chiefs for failing to prevent mortar attacks against Israeli targets and has affirmed that anyone entrusted with whatever task has to live up to the expectations attached to the job.

This is the first time that a Palestinian leader has taken such a bold and tough position, and it is hoped that this will advance the prospects for peace negotiations with Israel.

However, Abbas is facing a difficult task ahead. On the one hand, he has to crack down against his own people and thus make his position precarious. On the other, he has no assurance that Sharon would meet the minimum demands of the Palestinian people even if the Palestinians refrain from armed resistance to the occupation of their country and give the Israeli prime minister the benefit of doubt and hope he would deal with the peace process in good faith.

That is indeed the key to the situation. While most Palestinians seem to think that armed resistance would not gain them anything - as evident from the last four years - they also know that the negotiations that followed the landmark Oslo agreement were equally futile and gave them nothing. Abbas has the task of convincing his people that their best bet is the US, whose president has made a public commitment to a two-state solution and promised Palestinians independence.

The Palestinians are not going to rely on any good faith on the part of Sharon and his Likud supporters. They have little to show to themselves in order to believe that Sharon would be amenable to accepting their legitimate rights. Therefore, the only way they could go ahead is to accept the American president's assurance in good faith and do their part of the bargain.

However, even the American position might not be a watershed at this juncture. The Palestinian experience with the US has always been disappointing. Every time, any snag developed in the post-Oslo negotiations, they saw the US backing the Israelis and applying pressure for Palestinian compromises rather than accepting logic and reason that would warrant pressure on Israel. Abbas also needs to convince his people that they would gain from refraining from armed attacks and could expect an improvement in their daily life.

Under the plan outlined by the US, there would be new housing, schools and hospitals in the Gaza Strip and industrial infrastructure in the West Bank. However, promises are not enough. The US should not wait for tangible moves for resuming the peace negotiations before doing anything on the ground to help the Palestinians. Both efforts should run in parallel, with the inevitable hiccups in the negotiations kept away from having any impact on the drive for improvements in Palestinian life.

Washington should not try to pressure Abbas and his people by linking the state of security in the West Bank and Gaza to progress in the peace talks, because such linkage would only complicate things. That also applies to Sharon. The Israeli prime minister should not go back to his old strategy of calling off talks and suspending contacts with the Palestinians every time there is an armed attack.

Sharon should realise that it is not realistic to expect the entire Palestinian population, long used to brutal treatment at the hands of the occupiers, to stay put. There would be elements who might take it upon themselves to exact revenge for their suffering, in terms of death of loved ones at the hands of Israeli soldiers and summary detention and torture.

Indeed, Abbas, as president of the Palestinian people, does have a key role to play in checking armed attacks, but he should not be held responsible for the slightest violation of the truce agreed upon at Sharm El Sheikh.

Sharon should also stay away from gloating that his moves have secured him the return of the Jordanian Ambassador Gen. Marouf Bakhit to Tel Aviv and see that as an end in itself. He has to live up to the obligations attached to the peace process without sitting back, waiting for Abbas or any of his people to make a false step and cite that as the reason for freezing negotiations.

This article was published in the Sunday, February 13, 2005 edition of the Jordan Times. It is used here with permission.