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Israeli PM to Meet Obama at White House

By The Israel Project

Talks Likely to Focus on Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

Aaron David Miller: "The False Religion of Mideast Peace," Foreign Policy (May/June 2010)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet President Barack Obama in Washington Tuesday (June 1), with talks likely to center on the current round of indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians mediated by U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was expected to meet today (Wednesday) with Netanyahu to deliver the invitation. Emanuel is currently on a private visit to Israel to celebrate the bar mitzvahs of his son and his nephew. Emanuel also is expected to meet tomorrow (Thursday) with Israeli President Shimon Peres to discuss a range of U.S.-Israel concerns.

On Monday (May 24), Mitchell praised recent moves by the Israeli government, such as the country's 10-month construction freeze and the removal of West Bank security checkpoints. After Mitchell completed the first round of proximity talks May 9, the State Department issued a statement that: "If either [party] takes significant actions during the proximity talks that we judge would seriously undermine trust, we will respond to hold them accountable and ensure that negotiations continue." The Palestinians pledged to take measures to curb anti-Israel incitement, while Israel agreed to postpone an East Jerusalem housing project in a Jewish neighborhood.

Israel announced Sunday (May 23) that it will ease a number of security-oriented restrictions in the West Bank to improve daily life for Palestinians. These measures include opening the Dahariya crossing near Hebron and the Keidar road near Ma'ale Adumim; removing 60 road blocks in the West Bank; facilitating travel for senior Palestinian businessmen through security crossings; and allowing Arab-Israeli citizens to visit the West Bank through all crossings along the security fence and the city of Tulkarem on weekends through the 104 crossing.

Despite the goodwill gestures, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has said it will not accept an Israeli offer for extended Palestinian security control over Nablus, Tulkarem and Qalqilyah. Instead, the PA is continuing to pressure the U.S. administration to demand that Israel withdraw from large parts of the West Bank and give the Palestinian security forces control over nearly the whole territory. Israel is reluctant to agree to such moves due to security concerns.

Convincing Palestinian leaders to take risks to prepare their population for peace remains a challenge for U.S. and Israeli negotiators. Former U.S. Mideast negotiator Aaron David Miller recently wrote in Foreign Policy magazine that "Arab-Israeli peacemaking is politically risky and life-threatening. Consider the murders of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. At Camp David, I heard Palestinian leader [Yasser] Arafat say at least three times, 'You Americans will not walk behind my coffin.'" During the 1990s, the Oslo peace process broke down in part because Arafat continued to incite the Palestinian population against Israel in violation of the Oslo Accords.

A poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in March 2010 showed that 47.2 percent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza either strongly support or support armed attacks against Israeli civilians inside Israel.

These findings come against the backdrop of continuing Palestinian glorification of terrorism and violence. For example, the Fatah party, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, held a children's football tournament May 15 in honor of terrorist leader Abu Jihad at a Palestinian youth club near Jerusalem, where the party's branch secretary encouraged the children to follow Abu Jihad's example. Abu Jihad planned multiple terrorist attacks against Israel, such as the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre which killed 37 civilians, including an American.

In March, the PA dedicated a square after the female suicide terrorist who carried out that attack, Dalal al-Mughrabi. Also in mid-May, a PA TV channel featured a children's program showing a large map of "Palestine" that included all of Israel, as children pointed to various places in Israel that the host said were "in our state, Palestine." Maps depicting pre-1967 Israel as part of "Palestine" have been featured in Palestinian children's textbooks and TV programs in the past.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry stated in January, "Hero-worship of terrorists and their despicable acts - which has transpired not only in the past but in recent days - inspires further violence…The continuation of incitement by the PA leadership constitutes a serious violation of the Palestinians' international obligations and calls into question their commitment to peace."

Recent Palestinian Actions

As in past years, Palestinians commemorated Nakba Day on May 15 to mark what they describe as the "catastrophe" of the establishment of Israel by holding protests and fiery speeches.But this year, Abbas declined to deliver a speech on the occasion, which analysts say may have been prompted by the Palestinians' recent assurances that they would crack down on incitement.

In an interview with Israel's Channel 2 last month, Abbas said, "I urged my people in my speech [on April 24] not to be dragged into the trap of reaching to stones and bullets. I do not want anyone to hold a demonstration and confront the Israelis with violence. These instructions have been given to the security apparatuses that were told to prevent any friction between the demonstrators and the Israeli army."

PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also is stepping up efforts to prevent Palestinian violence in the West Bank, enabling the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to withdraw from some areas, including around Hebron, to allow Palestinian security forces more autonomy.

Recent Israeli Confidence-Building Measures Toward The Palestinians

In hopes of making progress in the ongoing talks, Netanyahu discussed with Mitchell the "possibility that Israel would consider carrying out confidence-building measures towards the Palestinians in the context of the proximity talks." Those measures are expected to include releasing Palestinian prisoners.

Israeli news outlets have also reported that Israel might transfer land to the Palestinians for a road from Ramallah to the new, planned Palestinian community of Rawabi. The land had originally been allocated for the expansion of Jewish communities.

Since taking office in March 2009, Netanyahu has repeatedly called on the Palestinians to return to peace talks without preconditions. Earlier this month, Abbas agreed to renew negotiations after a year-and-a-half, despite earlier Israeli overtures such as removing checkpoints and roadblocks and freezing all settlement construction in the West Bank.

Netanyahu's meeting in Washington will follow a trip to Paris on Thursday (May 27) for Israel's acceptance ceremony into the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a 31-member group of economically developed nations. He will then continue on to Canada May 28 for meetings with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian Jewish leaders.

The Israel Project is an international non-profit organization devoted to educating the press and the public about Israel while promoting security, freedom and peace. The Israel Project provides journalists, leaders and opinion-makers accurate information about Israel. The Israel Project is not related to any government or government agency.