Friday, July 26, 2013
Kerry Uses Arabs to Bully Palestinians*
By Nicola
Nasser**
A new tactic by US Secretary of State John Kerry is causing a
split within the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) ranks regarding
further talks with Israel
In his sixth tour of the region as secretary of state, Kerry did
something unusual. Instead of visiting Israel ,
as he always does, he left it out of his itinerary, deciding instead to hold
most of the talks in the Jordanian capital Amman Israel
In order to do this, Kerry wanted to get the FCAPI to accept these
concessions on behalf of the Palestinians, a new tactic that may or may not be
working but that so far has succeeded in causing divisions and widespread
consternation in Palestinian circles. The tactic is not totally new, for it
resonates with the manner in which US
diplomats have used the Arab League to justify foreign intervention for the
sake of regime change in countries such as Iraq
and Libya
Speaking after a meeting with Kerry in Amman
For the Palestinians, ironing out these kinks is going to be a
quite a job, however. PLO chief negotiator Saeb Ereikat is said to have had a
“stormy” meeting with the PLO leadership concerning Kerry’s proposals. The PLO,
its back to the wall, is now forming a working committee to decide what to do
about the talks.
All of this is unprecedented. In the past, the FCAPI used to take
its cue from the Palestinians. When the Palestinians were faced with demands
for concessions they were reluctant to give, they politely said they needed to
consult with the FCAPI, which was a courteous way of turning down unacceptable
proposals. Now the FCAPI is getting them into trouble by agreeing to
concessions before the Palestinians even have time to discuss them at length.
In the absence of FCAPI support for the PLO negotiators, the
latter had no option but to play along with Kerry’s proposals. On Friday, the US Israel to send
negotiators to Washington
US Department of State spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters that
unless progress was made on Kerry’s sixth visit to the region, he would not be
returning for more visits. If anything, this sounds like an unveiled threat
aiming to put pressure on Abbas and his chief negotiator and force their
cooperation.
During this round of talks, Kerry also left Abbas no chance to
play for time. Instead of waiting for Abbas to go to talk with the FCAPI, Kerry
brought the Arab League diplomats to Amman
In Amman
Yet, the situation is likely to spark resentment back home, where
most of the PLO leaders are opposed to Kerry’s proposals. However, they know
that a blunt rejection of these proposals may invoke an unpleasant US
Abbas is waiting to give his answer following consultations with
the PLO leadership. In all likelihood, the latter will have to agree, despite
its deep reservations about Kerry’s proposals.
As a result of all this, the FCAPI has let down the Palestinians,
and it is not the first time that this has happened. On 29 April, a Qatari-led
FCAPI delegation offered Kerry what amounted to its consent to a land swap at a
meeting in Washington
Lebanese analyst Ziad Al-Sayegh recently wrote that “after the
failure of the internationalisation of the talks [through the Quartet], we are
now going through a regionalisation of the talks [through the Arab League].”
One symptom of this regionalisation is that the land swap, overwhelmingly
rejected by the Palestinians, is now getting the Arab League’s stamp of
approval.
Last Thursday, the Jordanian news agency Petra cited the Arab
League chief, Nabil Al-Arabi, as saying that the “US plan concerning the peace
process is based on three axes; political, economic and security-related”. The
Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot then offered an interesting interpretation of
this statement. The political axis, it said, was the resumption of talks. The
security axis was going to be left to the US
During his last tour of the region, Kerry made no reference to the
Israeli settlements. Nor did he object when Israel
declared plans to build 732 new settlement units in the settlement of Modi’in
Illit in west Jerusalem Israel
Last
Friday, Kerry said that the best way to give the talks a chance was to keep
them “private”. He declined to reveal the details of his plan as a result, and
the FCAPI had nothing to say. For now, the PLO leadership is also keeping its
cards close to its chest.
* This article was first published and
translated from Arabic by the Al-Ahram Weekly.
** Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir
Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. nassernicola@ymail.com
